Africa-Press – South-Sudan. More than 50 South Sudanese citizens are awaiting deportation from Egypt, for entering the country illegally.
The deportees including children, women and men were arrested in border town of Aswan South of Egypt.
They were released from detention and taken to the South Sudan Embassy early this month.
More than 20 of them have already been repatriated to Juba after the First Lady Mary Ayen Mayardit paid for their tickets, and the rest are expected to arrive in the coming days.
Speaking to the state television SSBC on Friday, Mary Ayen said she is willing to repartriate the South Sudan nationals back home.
“Young children of this age cannot be put in prison. Even here in our country, there are no children of this age in prisons, and we thank God for your return. And anyone who wants to return, we will help him return to the country and we will bring the rest,” said Ayen.
Some of deportees, who spoke to the media expressed their joy during the Event.
“I cannot describe to you how happy we are, because we went through a very difficult experience. We thank God for answering our prayers and the First Lady for her help because in this ordeal we had no hope of getting out of prison.”
“We stayed in prison with criminals in bad conditions Because we had no documents. We had one meal a day. We thank those who contributed to bringing us back to the country, especially the first lady.”
According to the Egyptian government, many South Sudanese have been living in the North African country without renewing their immigration papers.
In April this year, Cairo waived resident permit fees accrued by South Sudanese for the years they have lived in the country.
The Egyptian Consulate in Juba said the requirement had to change.
Ahmed Albakry revealed to Eye Radio that South Sudanese who previously failed to renew their resident permits would not be penalized within the given period.
Consular Albakry advised South Sudanese to go to the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to renew their resident permits.
For More News And Analysis About South-Sudan Follow Africa-Press
