South Africa defiant after US threatens ‘consequences’ over raid on Afrikaner refugee center
The South African government has rejected U.S. accusations that it harassed and intimidated U.S. officials during a raid on a center processing refugee applications filed by white South Africans in the United States.
Tuesday’s raid saw seven Kenyans deported from South Africa for working illegally in the country.
The United States has accused South Africa of publishing passport details of its officials, calling it “unacceptable” and warning of “serious consequences”.
But South Africa denied this, saying it treated “data security issues with the utmost seriousness”.
The United States offers asylum status to members of South Africa’s Afrikaner community, saying the community faces persecution. The South African government has rejected the allegations.
President Donald Trump’s administration has reduced the annual number of refugees from around the world from 125,000 to 7,500, but says it will prioritize Afrikaners, who are mostly descendants of Dutch and French settlers.
Tensions between the two countries have increased since Trump came to power.
After the raid on the processing center, South Africa expressed concern that foreign officials appeared to have coordinated with undocumented workers and said it had contacted the United States and Kenya to resolve the issue.
In a statement released Thursday, the US State Department said it condemned “in the strongest possible terms the recent detention by the South African government of US officials while carrying out their duties of providing humanitarian assistance to Afrikaners.”
He provided no evidence to support his accusation that South Africa leaked the passport information of its officials.
South Africa’s Department of Home Affairs called the accusations “baseless.”
“South Africa treats all data security matters with the utmost seriousness and operates under strict legal and diplomatic protocols,” it said in a statement.
He had previously said that no US officials had been arrested and that the operation did not take place on a diplomatic site.
He said the Kenyans had applied for work permits, which were refused.
The United States did not address the issue directly, but said it had “worked to make the refugee program operate within the confines of the law.”
Trump claimed that Afrikaners were victims of “genocide” in South Africa, even though there is no evidence that white farmers are more likely to be killed than their black counterparts.
He offered refugee status to Afrikaners earlier this year after South African President Cyril Ramaphosa signed a law allowing the government to seize land without compensation in rare cases.
A first group of around 50 people traveled to the United States aboard a chartered plane. It’s unclear how many others have moved or are in the process of applying.
Due to the legacy of the racist apartheid system, the majority of private agricultural land in South Africa is owned by the white community and the South African government is under pressure to provide more land to black farmers. However, he points out that no land has yet been seized under the new law.
South Africa has repeatedly attempted to move closer to the Trump administration, including 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 the government was persecuting white people.
Last month, the United States boycotted the G20 summit in South Africa and said it would not invite South African officials to its meetings since taking the helm of the group of the world’s largest economies.
Additional reporting by Khanyisile Ngcobo in Johannesburg
