South Africa authorities said to have arrested and would deport seven Kenyan nationals illegally working on processing refugee applications for the U.S. government.
The Kenyans were working at the center 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 Tuesday and it was not a diplomatic site.
According to the U.S. embassy website, processing for the refugee programme in South Africa is being done by Amerikaners, a group led by white South Africans, and RSC Africa, a Kenya-based refugee support centre operated by Church World Service.
The seven were arrested during an operation on Tuesday and issued with deportation orders, it said.
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 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 organization 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.