Vietnamese man deported from U.S. to South Sudan is repatriated after months in detention :: WRAL.com

JUBA, South Sudan (AP) — A Vietnamese nationwide deported to South Sudan by the Trump administration beneath its controversial third-country deportation program was repatriated to Vietnam on Friday after spending greater than a yr in detention.

South Sudan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs introduced the repatriation of 44-year-old Tuan Phan at a press briefing on Friday.

“We are grateful that while in our custody Mr. Phan was very disciplined, joyful, and importantly, he remained healthy,” stated spokesperson Agok Anyar.

Phan and 7 different males have been despatched to Africa in May 2025, rerouted first to a U.S. army base in Djibouti after a federal choose blocked their deportation to South Sudan midflight, citing procedural irregularities. They arrived in Juba, South Sudan’s capital, aboard a army plane in July 2025 after a Supreme Court ruling greenlit their removing.

The eight males all have felony convictions within the U.S. however had served their jail sentences after they have been taken into custody final yr.

At least seven African international locations have agreed to just accept deportees who should not their very own residents as a part of preparations with the U.S., which in trade has agreed to pay tens of millions of {dollars} to these governments.

More than 180 individuals have been despatched to these international locations, based on the monitoring initiative Third Country Deportation Watch.

The selection of South Sudan as a receiving nation was notably controversial given its exceptionally poor human rights file, excessive ranges of corruption and rising political instability. Armed battle displaced greater than half 1,000,000 individuals in 2025, based on the United Nations.

Phan is the second individual within the group to be repatriated after Jesus Munõz-Gutierrez was flown to Mexico in September. Dian Peter Domach, the one South Sudanese nationwide within the group, was launched upon his arrival, officers stated. The remaining males are from Cuba, Myanmar, and Laos.

Phan moved to the U.S. as a toddler in 1991, courtroom paperwork present. In 2000, shortly after turning eighteen, he obtained a 25-year jail sentence after he shot and killed somebody throughout a gang altercation. His removing from the U.S. was ordered in 2009, and he was taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement instantly after finishing his sentence in March 2025.

In Juba, the deportees have been held in a gated home beneath supervision by armed guards, based on a U.S. Senate report. A congressional aide who visited Juba final yr was the primary individual aside from a South Sudanese official to go to the boys, the report says.

Michael Bochenek, a senior counsel for Human Rights Watch, stated that the dearth of visits means “there’s been no independent check on people’s treatment and conditions of confinement and raises serious questions about South Sudan’s compliance with human rights norms and essential safeguards against abuses in detention.”

While the main points of offers made between the U.S. and different governments to just accept deportees have been made public, the circumstances of the South Sudan association stay murky.

State Department paperwork made public present that South Sudan made requests to the U.S. after agreeing to just accept the boys, together with sanctions aid for a former high official and assist with the prosecution of a outstanding opposition chief.

It is unclear what South Sudan’s authorities was paid or what it obtained in return.

___ Falzetta reported from Nairobi, Kenya.