South Sudan Repatriates 44-Year-Old Vietnamese Deportee After 1 Year in Custody

Q: After a year in Juba, what fate awaits the deportees from Cuba, Myanmar, and Laos?

After a year in Juba, the deportees from Cuba, Myanmar and Laos appear to remain in South Sudan, still in legal limbo and awaiting possible repatriation to their home countries. The clearest reporting indicates that, unlike Tuan Phan of Vietnam and Jesus Muñoz-Gutierrez of Mexico, the remaining men from Cuba, Myanmar and Laos have not yet been returned home. They were held under guard in Juba after their transfer from Djibouti, and rights groups say their detention has been arbitrary, with little transparency about their exact legal status, whereabouts or access to lawyers. That means their most likely immediate fate is continued confinement in South Sudan while officials try to arrange onward return. South Sudan’s government has said it is working to send deportees back to their countries of origin, but no confirmed timetable has been made public for the Cubans, the Myanmar national or the Laotian national. Human rights organizations say the uncertainty is the central issue. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have warned that prolonged detention without clear legal grounds, independent monitoring or regular legal access exposes the men to serious risk of abuse. They have urged South Sudan to disclose where the men are being held, allow unmonitored legal contact and facilitate access to agencies such as UNHCR and IOM. So, for now, their fate is unresolved: they remain stuck in South Sudan, with repatriation the stated goal but no publicly confirmed outcome.

3 articles · Updated · The Associated Press · Jun 19

Tuan Phan, 44, was flown from South Sudan to Vietnam on Friday after more than a year in detention following his deportation from the U.S.
Phan was among eight men sent out in May 2025 under the Trump administration’s third-country deportation program; a judge briefly blocked the transfer midflight, but the group reached Juba in July after a Supreme Court ruling.
South Sudan has held the men in a guarded house, according to a U.S. Senate report, with Human Rights Watch saying the lack of outside access left their treatment largely unchecked.
Phan is the second of the eight to leave South Sudan after one man was sent to Mexico in September; the others are from Cuba, Myanmar and Laos, while the sole South Sudanese national was released on arrival.
More than 180 people have been sent to at least seven African countries under similar U.S. deals worth millions, though the terms of South Sudan’s arrangement remain unclear despite requests for sanctions relief and legal support.