South Africa raids US refugee centre, arrests seven Kenyans

A centre in South Africa processing applications for the United States refugee program was raided by immigration and law enforcement officers, and seven Kenyan nationals were arrested for working there illegally, South Africa's Home Affairs Ministry said Wednesday.

The centre in Johannesburg was processing applications by white South Africans under the Trump administration's new program, giving them priority for refugee status in the U.S.

The Kenyans were working at the centre alongside U.S. officials despite entering South Africa on tourist visas, which did not allow them to work, the Home Affairs Ministry said in a statement. It said no U.S. officials were arrested in the raid on Tuesday, and it was not a diplomatic site.

The raid is bound to increase tensions between the U.S. and South Africa. U.S. President Donald Trump has been especially critical of the South African government since he returned to office, claiming the country is violently persecuting its white Afrikaner minority and also pursuing an anti-American foreign policy.

Trump’s widely rejected claims over the treatment of Afrikaners in South Africa led to his administration setting up the program offering them refugee status in the U.S.

South Africa's government has said that white South Africans do not meet the criteria for refugee status because there is no persecution, but says it won't stop them from applying for relocation under the U.S. program.

The South African Home Affairs Ministry didn't immediately say who the Kenyans worked for, but the U.S. government contracted a Kenya-based company, RSC Africa, to process the refugee applications by white South Africans, according to the U.S. Embassy in South Africa. RSC is operated by Church World Service, a U.S.-based nongovernment organisation offering humanitarian aid and refugee assistance across the world.

The statement by South Africa's Home Affairs Ministry said Kenyan nationals had previously been denied visas to travel to South Africa to work on the U.S. refugee program and questioned why the workers who entered the country on tourist visas were working at the refugee application site alongside U.S. officials.

“The presence of foreign nationals apparently coordinating with undocumented workers naturally raises serious questions about intent and diplomatic protocol,” the ministry said.

It said South Africa's Foreign Ministry had started “formal diplomatic engagements with both the United States and Kenya to resolve this matter.”

The seven Kenyan nationals were given deportation orders and banned from entering South Africa for a five-year period, South African authorities said.