A Laotian citizen who was controversially deported by the United States to South Sudan has finally left the African nation to return to his home country, ending an ordeal that lasted more than a year in detention. Thongxay Nilakout, 49, departed from South Sudan's capital of Juba on Thursday afternoon, bound for Vientiane, the capital of Laos, according to his attorney, Tin Nguyen. His legal representative emphasized that the lengthy detention and complex international transfer could have been entirely avoided.
According to Nguyen, Nilakout had been fully prepared to return directly to Laos before U.S. authorities chose to deport him to South Sudan. A Laotian consular official had previously informed Nilakout's family that a travel document had already been prepared for 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," Nguyen said in a statement. "He should have been sent to Laos."
The repatriation was facilitated by South Sudan’s Foreign Ministry, which announced on Thursday that it had coordinated the logistics with the government of Laos. As part of the arrangement, the Laotian government provided official assurances that Nilakout would not face torture or any other form of ill-treatment upon his return. Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security did not immediately provide answers regarding the case, requesting additional time to comment on the deportation and subsequent transfer.
Nilakout's journey to South Sudan began in May 2025, when he and seven other men were deported from the United States. Their flight was initially disrupted midflight when a federal judge blocked the deportation, prompting a temporary rerouting to a U.S. military base in Djibouti. However, a subsequent Supreme Court ruling cleared the way for their removal, and they were flown to Juba aboard a military aircraft. Upon arrival, the eight men were detained together in a gated house under armed guard. While all of them had criminal convictions in the U.S., they had already completed their respective prison sentences before being taken into immigration custody.
The practice of sending deportees to third countries has drawn sharp criticism from advocacy organizations. Groups such as Human Rights First and Refugees International, which monitor these operations, report that hundreds of individuals have been deported from the U.S. to African nations that are not their countries of origin. The decision to send deportees to South Sudan has been particularly contentious due to the country's severe political instability and poor human rights record. According to United Nations data, armed conflict in South Sudan displaced more than half a million people in 2025 alone.
Nilakout originally arrived in the United States as a child in 1980, after his family fled Laos and stayed in a Thai refugee camp. In 1995, at the age of 17, he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for his involvement in the murder of a German tourist during an armed robbery in southern California. He became eligible for parole following a landmark 2012 U.S. Supreme Court decision that declared mandatory life sentences without parole for juvenile offenders unconstitutional. After his release in 2023, Nilakout worked as a restaurant cook until U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained him in March 2025.
While Nilakout has departed, five other third-country deportees remain in South Sudan. This group includes four men from the original flight—two Cuban nationals and two Burmese nationals—alongside a Congolese national who was deported in a separate action. South Sudan's Foreign Ministry confirmed that these five individuals are still in the country and stated that officials are working alongside international partners and the respective governments to coordinate their safe and humane repatriation.
