Burundian Immigrants celebrate World Day against Trafficking in Persons/Photo by Charles Wote

Dozens of  Burundians are being trafficked to South Sudan weekly on false promises of better jobs, a situation putting the head of the Burundian community in South Sudan in a fix with the immigration authorities.

Niyibizi Aladin, the Chairperson of Burundian Diaspora in South Sudan  says he receives phone calls from his compatriots at the Nimule Entry Point who wants to enter South Sudan with most saying they were invited by unknown individuals to come and work in South Sudan.

He said most of them  are brought without documents ending up being exploited and mistreated.  not finding what they were promised.

“Our community has endured a lot of problems at the border of Nimule whereby you got individuals  bring people undocumented, and this raises a very big problem because most of our people have been deceived to come here,

‘They are deceived that there are jobs, but in really that is not true,’ he said.

according to Aladin, between 2022 and 2023, two of his country men ended their lives after failing to realize what they were brought for.

” We have even been suffering too much from such kind of trafficking in persons whereby we have already recorded two suicides from Burundians who came here in South Sudan and find what was promised is not what they got.”

Concerning immigration, Niyibizi Aladin added that most of his native Burundians coming to South Sudan lack information on the entry requirement.

“I been suffering so many times, especially at the Nimule border, I can receive more than 20 calls a week for the people [Burundians] who are coming but when you ask them,

‘Someone will tell you that a person told him or her to come to work in South Sudan but didn’t tell them how to come, what is needed and you find there is nothing he knows.”

According to the Burundian Diaspora leader, there are nearly 4000 of their nationals including asylum seekers engaging in different economic activities including Boda-boda, tailoring, farming, and construction in South Sudan.

South Sudan is home to nearly a million migrant workers with the majority not properly documented according