A South Sudanese migrant detained in the Libya capital Tripoli has pleaded with the government in Juba to come to their rescue as they are afraid they would die in prison.

Speaking on behalf of detained South Sudanese, Malang Deng from Gogrial, Warrap state says there are many South Sudanese migrants currently being detained by the Libyan authorities in Tripoli.

According to him, the Libyan government is demanding South Sudan send its top officials before releasing the migrants from detention.

Deng adds that a 12-year-old boy he identified as George Phillip Juma from Wau, Western Bahr el Ghazal State was arrested by the authorities in Benghazi after fleeing conflict in Sudan last month.

“South Sudanese are coming to Libya in order to cross the Mediterranean Sea to go to Europe. Now the sea is prohibited from crossing,” Deng told Eye Radio from Tripoli on Tuesday.

“If you are arrested, they will bring you to prison and they will say let your officials from the South Sudan Embassy come and take you,

“There are some South Sudanese who have spent two years, and others have spent three years in detention,

“When the conflict erupted in Sudan, some South Sudanese were displaced and crossed to Libya and went up to Benghazi and they were arrested there,

“There is a boy with me now, a Zande from Wau his name is George Phillip Juma. He is a little boy of 12 years and he is with me in prison that is why I report.”

Malang Deng went on to say some Embassies of other African countries such as Nigeria and Niger have rescued their nationals from detention.

He is however appealing to the government of South Sudan to rescue them saying they want to come back.

“There are many countries like Sierra Leone, Ghana, Senegal, Nigeria and others are all here including Sudanese. There are also Eritreans, Ethiopians and South Sudanese all here and some of them have their people [Embassies] and some are rescued,” said Deng.

“The embassy of Niger came and rescue its people, and the embassy of Nigeria also rescue its people,

“If there is any top government official there in South Sudan, he should come to rescue us, we are tired of this country.”

For his part, the acting Minister of Foreign Affairs Deng Dau Deng on Wednesday told Eye Radio that the government has discussed the matter with the International Organization for Migration to help repatriate them back.

He adds that South Sudan will soon direct its embassy in Cairo, Egypt to follow the rescue process.

“We have discussed this matter with IOM and we have also discussed it with the government of Egypt on the possibility of returning these particular South Sudanese from Libya,” said Deng Dau.

“I have raised this matter and we discussed it with IOM in February and only the information was not clear exactly where these people are,

“We will still direct our embassy in Cairo to pursue this matter because we don’t have an embassy in Tripoli that place is managed by our Embassy in Cairo.”

In April, the International Organization for Migration said it has started the verification of over 3,000 stranded South Sudanese migrants in Libya for repatriation.   

According to the government, there are about 3,000 South Sudanese nationals stranded in the North African country.

They are among thousands of African nationals daring to cross to Europe via the Mediterranean Sea by boat in search of a better life.

Many African migrants have lost their lives in the sea to boat raptures and overturns.