Africa-Press – South-Sudan. South Sudan immigration police have urged foreigners living without valid documents to visit the nearest immigration offices to renew them in order to avoid problems with the law enforcers.
Yesterday, the immigration division discovered six Bangladeshi nationals with over six-year-old expired passports, visas, and other documents.Speaking to the media yesterday in Juba, Immigration Chief at Muniki Station, Lt Col James Galuak Madiet, revealed that his officers identified about six foreigners working in hotels whose passports and visas had expired a long time ago.
He said despite holding the expired documents, they failed to follow the procedures of reporting themselves to the immigration office. “Our immigration silent search got six Bangladeshi nationals whose passports, visas, and alien registrations had expired since August 2021,” Lt. Col. Madiet told the press.
The Munuki Immigration Chief added, “All this time, since we began the silent search in August 2021, they have been in hiding, but today our immigration police officers managed to get them under their safe haven.”
Chief Madiet accused some of the country’s top army generals, and constitutional post holders of shielding foreigners without valid documents, saying it makes immigration work difficult.
“They are staying in South Sudan without valid visas, passports, and other documents because they are being protected by individuals working in the army, and high government constitutional post holders,” he said.
First Lt. Joseph Undo Elisa, Immigration Officer at Munuki Station, pointed fingers at some army and government officials for allowing foreigners to stay without renewing their documents.
“We can arrest them and take them to our headquarters for them to complete the process of renewing their documents, but before finishing, you find some people intervening and ordering the release of such people, “he stated.
However, he called on the country’s top officials to stop such a practice, saying such behaviour would encourage criminals to hide in the country. “Staying in hiding will not help you. You better come and start the process with immigration in any immigration department,” he added.
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