JOHANNESBURG: South African authorities have arrested and will expel seven Kenyans accused of working without the correct documentation on a US government program to accept white Afrikaners as “refugees,” the home affairs department said Wednesday.
US President Donald Trump’s administration in May offered refugee status to the minority white Afrikaner community, claiming they were victims of discrimination and even “genocide,” which the Pretoria government strongly denies.
The US government reportedly engaged Kenyans from a Christian NGO based in Kenya to come to South Africa to fast-track the processing of applications for resettlement under the program.
During a raid on an application processing center in Johannesburg on Tuesday, “seven Kenyan nationals were discovered engaging in work despite only being in possession of tourist visas, in clear violation of their conditions of entry into the country,” the South African home affairs department said.
“They were arrested and issued with deportation orders, and will be prohibited from entering South Africa again for a five-year period,” it said in a statement.
