Foreign Minister Barnaba Marial Benjamin appeared alongside Labour Minister Ngor Kolong Ngor at a press conference in Juba yesterday to deny that foreign workers would be expelled from South Sudan.

This came after the government issued a circular on the employment of foreign workers in non-governmental organizations, corporations, banks and hotels, which was widely interpreted as requiring foreigners in at least some key positions to leave the country.

Barnaba stated, “There is no statement in the Republic of South Sudan that says that they are expelling foreign workers in this country. We want to make this clear.”

“The government of South Sudan is not expelling any foreign workers in this country,” he reiterated.

Meanwhile, the Labour Minister issued a written statement that ‘clarified’ though did not officially revoke the earlier dictate, essentially revising its terms.

“We are not talking about technical or professional positions such as Nurses, Head of Mission, Country Directors, and Financial Controllers… We are targeting low-level positions existing in the various organizations,” he said.

Whereas the previous dictate ordered NGOs and companies to fire foreigners in the position of ‘Executive Director,’ the clarifying note yesterday stated, “By Executive Directors, we mean Executive Secretaries and Secretaries.”

In spoken Arabic remarks at the press conference yesterday, Kolong sought further to clarify on this particular point, saying, “The head could be a foreigner, but the director of his office must be a Southerner.”

He did not use the term ‘mudir tanfizi,’ which would approximate the English term ‘Executive Director,’ instead saying, ‘not the boss, but his secretary,’ later, ‘secretary of the company.’

“By personnel managers, we mean human resource managers,” the note further reads, without including the specification ‘head of human resource department’ that was included in the earlier circular.

The government also appears to have backtracked on its order to nationalize positions of ‘Public Relation Officer’ [sic]. In the clarifying statement yesterday the minister noted, “Public Relations: we mean front desk officers, receptionists and protocol officers.

Kolong in his statement yesterday however reiterated that “all positions listed under the provision of the circular issued on September 12, 2014 will be advertised and fill by only qualified South Sudanese.”

According to the Foreign Minister, “As for the labour laws, the labour laws will be clarified later. They will not be done abruptly…. The Minister of Labour will organize these laws, they will be issued, they will not be secret laws.” 

Related:

Aid agency calls on South Sudan to ‘revoke’ labour order (17 Sept.)

Kenyan economist slams S Sudan govt for restrictions on foreign workers (17 Sept.)

S Sudan asks NGOs to fire foreign aid workers amid hunger crisis (15 Sept.)

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