By Emma Batha

[R]ights group Refugees International warned there were plenty of precedents for mass deportations when political tensions between countries blew up.

“The idea that mass deportations could happen is absolutely realistic,” added Sarnata Reynolds, RI's expert on statelessness.
Reynolds said Khartoum’s original decision to denationalise the 700,000 southerners “flew in the face of international law” and its recent announcement that it would treat all southerners as foreigners from April 8 was “irresponsible, unfair and cruel”.

“These people have houses, they have children who are at school. Some people may not even have been to South Sudan and may never qualify for (citizenship there),” she added.

“What are you going to do about people with mixed marriages where one partner is Sudanese? What about people who just cannot demonstrate they are south Sudanese – people who don’t know where they are from because they just have never been there?”

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