The Directorate of Nationality, Passport, Immigration and Civil registry on Wednesday deported 20 foreigners who did not have proper travel documents despite a push from the civil society to spare them.

Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday in Juba, Gen. Atem Marol Biar, the director general of the Directorate of Nationality, Passport, Immigration, and Civil Registry, condemned the earlier statement made by a civil society activist calling for the undocumented aliens to be spared.

On Tuesday, Edmond Yakani, the executive director of the Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (CEPO), called on the South Sudan authorities to stop the deportation of some 13 Ethiopians and Eritrean nationals who sought refuge in the country, saying South Sudanese had in the past and continue to be hosted as refugees in neighboring countries.

However, Gen. Marol stressed that the deportees were returned to their country of origin based on international best practices to avoid South Sudan harboring criminals and terrorists.

“The deportation does not target a particular country. Yesterday some people from different embassies were calling me and I told them I do not know if you have people (being deported) in that we do not differentiate,” he said. “Whoever came to South Sudan without a document must be deported.

The immigration chief said the undocumented deportees were trafficked into the country and some of them are underage.  

“There is somebody behind facilitating them and this is purely an issue of human trafficking. What is the reason making underage people below 18 years move away from their country?” Gen. Marol wondered. “We have information that there is a human trafficking route from Gambella coming to our border and then sometimes to Renk (Upper Nile State.) Then they move to Juba for some days then immediately they are taken.”

In a related story, Gen. Marol said Ugandan authorities have handed over 342 passports and 174 nationality identity cards of South Sudanese to the Immigration Directorate. He said some of the travel documents were left as collateral at the time when entry visas were paid at the entry points to Uganda.

“Let them know the importance of the document.  For this to stop, we will register all their names and open a case in their absence,” he said. “Secondly, we will see if someone processed another passport and we will block them. If anyone gets a new passport among those whose passports are here, we will block them so that they come to us.”

Gen. Marol did not reveal the exact number of aliens his department deported on Wednesday.