South African immigration authorities raid a US refugee processing
center
[December 17, 2025]
By MICHELLE GUMEDE and GERALD IMRAY
JOHANNESBURG (AP) — A center 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 center 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 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.
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 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.
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Refugees from South Africa, arrive Monday, May 12, 2025, at
Dulles International Airport in Dulles, Va. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree
Nikhinson, File)
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.
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Imray reported from Cape Town, South Africa.
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