Laotian man deported by US leaves South Sudan for homeland
A Laotian man deported by the United States to South Sudan left for Laos on Thursday after spending more than a year in detention in Africa, an ordeal his attorney said could have been avoided, reports BritPanorama.
Thongxay Nilakout, 49, had been willing to return to Laos before the U.S. deported him to South Sudan, attorney Tin Nguyen stated. A Lao consular officer had assured his family that a travel document had already been issued for his return.
Nilakout departed South Sudan on Thursday afternoon for Vientiane, the capital of Laos, according to Nguyen. He had been detained in Juba, South Sudan’s capital, since July 2025.
South Sudan’s Foreign Ministry announced that it had coordinated his repatriation with the government of Laos, which provided assurances against torture or other ill treatment upon his return.
“Thongxay’s deportation to Laos is not just a relief for his family, it is proof of what we argued from day one. He should have been sent to Laos,” Nguyen said in a statement.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security indicated it was preparing a response to inquiries regarding Nilakout’s case and requested more time to provide comments.
Nilakout and seven other men were sent to Africa in May 2025, rerouted first to a U.S. military base in Djibouti after a federal judge blocked their deportation to South Sudan midflight. They later arrived in Juba aboard a military aircraft following a Supreme Court ruling that permitted their removal.
The eight were confined in a gated house under armed guard. All had criminal convictions in the U.S., but had completed their prison sentences before being taken into immigration custody.
According to advocacy groups Human Rights First and Refugees International, hundreds have been deported from the U.S. to African countries that aren’t their home nations.
Approximately a dozen African countries have accepted third-country deportees from the U.S., some reportedly in exchange for millions of dollars in payments, although the specifics of the South Sudan agreement remain unclear.
The selection of South Sudan raised significant concern due to its poor human rights record and ongoing political instability. Armed conflict displaced over half a million people there in 2025, as reported by the United Nations.
Nilakout resettled in the U.S. as a child in 1980 after his family fled Laos, spending time initially in a refugee camp in Thailand, according to his attorney.
In 1995, he was sentenced to life in prison without parole for his involvement in the murder of a German tourist during an armed robbery in Southern California, committing the crime at the age of 17.
His attorney noted that he became eligible for parole following a 2012 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that deemed mandatory life sentences without parole for juvenile offenders unconstitutional. He was released in 2023 and was working as a restaurant cook when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement took him into custody in March 2025.
Of the original eight deportees, four remain in South Sudan, including two Burmese nationals and two Cuban nationals. Additionally, a Congolese national who was deported separately has since joined them, bringing the total number to five, Nguyen confirmed.
South Sudan’s Foreign Ministry acknowledged that five third-country deportees are still in the country and stated it is working with the relevant governments and international partners to facilitate their safe and humane repatriation.
