The United States has extended the temporary protection status for South Sudanese nationals living in the country for 18 more months.
Immigrants and those considered eligible aliens without nationality from South Sudan will now stay in the US until May 2022.
The Temporary Protected Status protects members of the designated groups from war and natural disaster and prohibits authorities from deporting eligible beneficiaries.
It will allow South Sudanese to stay in the United States, work and provide support for themselves and their families.
They may be granted travel authorization and still retain the same protections upon returning to the US.
Those enjoying these rights are also able to send financial support to their loved ones in South Sudan.
According to the US Department of Homeland Security, the 18-month extension is necessary because of the ongoing armed conflict and extraordinary and temporary conditions in South Sudan.
It stated that the country continues to experience dire humanitarian conditions, including significant levels of civilian displacement and food insecurity, significant impediments to humanitarian assistance, and a severe economic crisis.
“The extension allows currently eligible TPS beneficiaries to retain TPS through May 2, 2022, so long as they otherwise continue to meet the eligibility requirements for TPS,” a notice partly states.
The notice by the department emphasized that there is also a continuing prevalence of incidents of armed groups attacking civilians—consistently – in South Sudan.
It added that there are a high military and ethnic militia mobilization, armed groups’ readiness to resort to violence, and a lack of accountability.
The US Department of Homeland Security pointed out sporadic fighting in Central and Eastern Equatoria states, where hostilities contributed to the targeting of civilians through armed attacks, abductions, and kidnappings as reported by the UN Panel of Experts on South Sudan.
It further noted the heavy clashes that erupted between armed civilians and government forces carrying out a disarmament project, resulting in many deaths this year.
These, including kidnapping, murders and attacks against civilians, looting, and sexual violence in Upper Nile and Western Bahr el-Ghazal states, are among the reasons the US said it is extending the temporary protection status for South Sudanese in America.
The extension comes three months after the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Migration and Committee on International Justice and Peace called on the Trump Administration to extend Temporary Protected Status for South Sudan.
The Bishops argued that the continued existence of armed conflict and external and temporary conditions prevent the safe return of people back to South Sudan.
In its assessment, the Department of Homeland Security agreed that indeed intercommunal violence has increased – worsened by adverse weather conditions and struggles for dominance along ethnic, tribal, and sub-clan lines.
In 2019 and 2020, the US and the UN Panel of Experts on South Sudan also reported that state security forces suppressed political and civil activities, arbitrarily detaining civilians and engaging in torture and extrajudicial killings.
South Sudan was first designated on October 13, 2011, on the dual bases of ongoing armed conflict and extraordinary and temporary conditions in South Sudan that prevented nationals of South Sudan from safely returning.
The Temporary Protected Status for South Sudan was last extended in April 2019.
According to the American Community Survey, there are nearly 100,000 people of Sudanese and South Sudanese origin living in the United States.