South Africa has accused the US of using Kenyan nationals withoutwork permits at a facility processing applications by white South Africans for refugee status.
Seven Kenyans were arrested after intelligence reports revealed that people “had recently entered South Africa on tourist visas and had illegally taken up work” at the centre, said a statement from South Africa’s Department of Home Affairs.
Washington accused South Africa of “interference” in its efforts to admit white Afrikaners as refugees, in a response issued to Agence France-Presse.
The US is offering asylum status to Afrikaners as it says the community is facing persecution. South Africa’s government has rejected the claims.
The US has reduced its yearly intake of refugees from around the world from 125,000 to 7,500, but says it will prioritise Afrikaners, who are mostly descendants of Dutch and French settlers.
This is one of the issues that have caused a sharp deterioration in relations between South Africa and the Trump administration.
South Africa says the Kenyan nationals arrested in Tuesday’s raid will now be deported and will be banned from entering the country for five years.
They had previously been denied work visas but were found “engaging in work despite only being in possession of tourist visas, in clear violation of their conditions of entry into the country”, the statement said.
South Africa also expressed concern that foreign officials appeared to have coordinated with undocumented workers and said it had reached out to the US and Kenya to resolve the matter.
The home affairs department said the raid showcased the commitment that South Africa shared “with the United States to combating illegal immigration and visa abuse in all its forms”.
No US officials were arrested and the operation was not at a diplomatic site, it said.
While the State Department is yet to respond to the BBC’s request for comment, in a statement issued to US publications, Tommy Pigott, principal deputy spokesperson for the State Department, said the department was “seeking immediate clarification from the South African government” on the issue and expected “full cooperation and accountability”.
“Interfering in our refugee operations in unacceptable,” US publication The Hill quoted Pigott saying.
The processing of applications by white South Africans is being done by RSC Africa, according to the US embassy in South Africa. RSC Africa is a Kenyan-based refugee support centre operated by Church World Service (CWS).
The BBC has asked RSC Africa for comment.
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that Afrikaners are being subjected to a “genocide” in South Africa, even though there is no evidence that white farmers are more likely to be the victims of crime than their black counterparts.
He offered Afrikaners refugee status earlier this year after South African President Cyril Ramaphosa signed a law allowing the government to seize land without compensation in rare instances.
A first group of about 50 people flew to the US on a chartered plane – it is not clear how many others have moved, or are in the process of applying.
Because of the legacy of the racist apartheid system, the majority of privately owned farmland in South Africa is owned by the white community and South Africa’s government is under pressure to provide more land to black farmers. However, it stresses that no land has yet been seized under the new law.
South Africa has repeatedly tried to mend fences with the Trump administration, most famously when Ramaphosa led a high-level delegation to the White House earlier this year.
However, this backfired when Trump ambushed him with images, videos and news reports allegedly showing that the government was persecuting white people.
One video featured firebrand South African opposition figure Julius Malema singing: “Shoot the Boer [Afrikaner], Shoot the farmer”.
However, a South African court has ruled that this song, which Malema often chants at his political rallies, is not hate speech.
Last month, the US boycotted the G20 summit in South Africa and has said it would not invite South African officials to its meetings since it took over leadership of the grouping of the world’s biggest economies.
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