Aid agencies say they are urgently seeking clarity from the South Sudanese government after it signalled that it would ramp up the cost of work permits for foreign aid workers, days after a famine was declared in the country.

Aid groups said the move by the labour ministry to increase the cost of permits from $100 to up to $10,000 (£8,230) was “terrible timing” in a country where 100,000 people are starving and a further 1 million are on the brink of starvation.

Last week, the president of South Sudan promised “unimpeded access” to all aid organisations after famine was declared in parts of the country.

The fee increase, introduced in a memorandum, applies to all foreign workers in the country and is aimed at increasing government revenue, the minister of information, Michael Makuei, told Associated Press.

The status of the memorandum, dated 2 March, is unclear, as is its reach, but international agencies expressed concern that they are seen as a “soft touch”.

Joel Charny, the director of the Norway Refugee Council USA, which has an office in Juba, said NGOs were seeking clarity on the status of the measure and to what extent they may be affected.

Charny said: “It is the wrong measure at the wrong time. If it does come into effect, it’s obviously terrible timing, in a country where 100,000 people are starving as we speak and another 1 million considered on the brink of famine.



“The mere fact that they have put this forward is concerning.”

Charny said he expected to see pushback from NGOs if the measure is implemented: “I’m sure the NGO community is mobilising to have a dialogue with the government to get them to rescind or not implement this directive.

“It’s just another way to make money. In many countries the international NGO community is seen as a soft target for this kind of revenue raising because they know we want to stay.”

Julien Schopp, director of humanitarian practice at InterAction, an alliance of 180 NGOs working around the world, said he expected “pushback” from everyone concerned.

“No organisation can afford this, and if NGOs go to their institutional donors to request that extra money, I’m pretty sure that [the donors] will be reluctant to pay this because they will see this to some extent as ransom,” said Schopp.

He said the timing of the measure may have been accidental. “Some people in the country say this has been in the works for some time,” he said in an interview with US radio station NPR.

Another aid worker, familiar with the situation in South Sudan, said that the memorandum had not yet been signed off by the finance ministry.

“It is not a done deal yet,” said the worker. “If it is endorsed by the Ministry of Finance it will put it into effect and it will be a real burden on aid agencies and take away funding from famine-hit communities.”



Simon Adams, the executive director of the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, said the move by the South Sudan government showed a “callous disregard for the welfare of their own people”.

“We believe very strongly that the government and the armed rebels have committed atrocities,” said Adams.

“It’s bitterly ironic to me that humanitarian workers are seen as a source of revenue rather than people who can provide aid and save lives.”

The UN and others have long accused the government of blocking or restricting aid delivery in the north-east African nation, where civil war began in December 2013.

Two days ago, amid continued fighting and the recent looting of a humanitarian organisation, the UN’s humanitarian chief called for immediate access for aid organisations.

Speaking after a two-day visit to the country, where he said obstacles to humanitarian assistance included active hostility, access denial and bureaucracy, Stephen O’Brien said: “People have been displaced, brutalised and raped. They have been attacked when they sought out assistance. This must stop, and it must stop now.”

Aid workers were forced to relocate from Mayendit, one of two counties hit by famine, after a government official informed them there would be fighting in the town.

In February, armed groups and members of the local community looted a Save the Children warehouse in northern Jonglei area.

Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday that the famine is the man-made result of “conflict, warring parties blocking access for aid workers and large-scale human rights violations”.

The Guardian approached several British aid organisations that work in South Sudan but they were reluctant to comment.