The East African Civil Society Forum has appealed to the new chief of South Sudan immigration department to immediately end the
injustice against East African citizens visiting and living in South Sudan.
According to the chairperson of the forum, Edmund Yakani, citizens
of Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda, and DR Congo are
being mistreated at Nimule border point and Nesitu checkpoint - a practice
which he said is against the East Africa Community Integration framework.
“We have seen immigration officers being too aggressive and too harsh to our brothers and sisters from the member states of East African Community,” Yakani said.
“Our migration officers do intimidate the citizens of
East African Community, and this is against the principles of why we join integration
into East African Community.”
On January 26, 2024, President Salva Kiir appointed Maj.
Gen. Simon Majur as new director general of the Directorate of Civil Registry,
Nationality, Passports, and Immigration to replace General Atem Marol who
promoted to Inspector General of Police.
Yakani urges the new director of immigration to maintain
South Sudan political commitment to the integration of the East African
Community by granting free movement of member state citizens.
“I wish that under your leadership as the director of migration,
you will direct all migration officers across the country and specifically on Juba-Nimule
Road to respect the freedom of movement for East African citizens within the
framework of East African citizens integration,” he said.
“As a nationalist and a leader, we are urging you as a civil society to take responsibility to correct this situation. At least we need to see from now on in Nesitu. Ugandans, Kenyans, Tanzanians Rwandans Burundians, and Congolese should enjoy freedom of movement without any stress or any intimidation.”
Yakani is a South Sudanese civil society activist and executive director of Community Empowerment for Progress (CEPO) who now heads the East Africa Civil Society organizations' Forum.
His assessment indicates that South Sudanese are not mistreated
when traveling to any of the East African countries the way citizens of other
states are being mistreated in South Sudan.
The East African Community is a regional intergovernmental
organization which president Salva Kiir of South Sudan currently lead as the
chairman. It consists of seven partner countries including Burundi, the
Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Uganda and Tanzania,
with its headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania.
It got a mission to widen and deepen economic, political, social,
and cultural integration to improve the quality of life of the people of East
Africa through increased competitiveness, value added production, trade and
investments.
Article 7 of the East African Community Market Protocol
provides for the Partner States commitment to guarantee the free movement of
persons who are citizens of the other Partner States, within their territories.
Partner States are required to ensure non‐discrimination of the citizens of the
other Partner States based on their nationalities by ensuring:
The entry of citizens of the other Partner States into the
territory of the Partner State without a visa; free movement of persons and
stay within the territory; and that the citizens of the other Partner States
are allowed to exit the territory of the Partner State without restrictions.
However, it said that the guarantee is not an absolute right as it is subject to limitations imposed by the host Partner State on grounds of public policy, public security or public health but the member states must be notified of the limitations in a partner state.
