Keypoints:
- Pretoria denies harassing US officials during refugee centre raid
- US accuses South Africa without providing evidence
- Afrikaner asylum programme fuels diplomatic tensions
SOUTH Africa has rejected accusations by the United States that its authorities harassed and intimidated American officials during a raid on a centre processing refugee applications by white South Africans seeking asylum in the US.
The operation, carried out on Tuesday, resulted in the expulsion of seven Kenyan nationals who were found to be working in South Africa illegally. The centre had been assisting members of the Afrikaner community applying for refugee status under a US programme introduced by President Donald Trump’s administration.
In a statement issued on Thursday, the US State Department said it condemned ‘in the strongest terms the South African government’s recent detention of US officials performing their duties to provide humanitarian support to Afrikaners’. Washington also alleged that South African authorities had published the passport details of US officials involved, calling the move ‘unacceptable’ and warning of ‘severe consequences’.
South Africa’s Department of Home Affairs dismissed the claims as ‘unsubstantiated’, insisting that no American officials were arrested and that the facility was not a diplomatic site. ‘South Africa treats all matters of data security with the utmost seriousness and operates under stringent legal and diplomatic protocols,’ the department said.
Disputed accounts of the operation
Pretoria said the Kenyan nationals expelled during the raid had applied for work permits that were denied, making their employment unlawful under South African immigration law. It added that the operation was conducted in line with domestic regulations and raised concerns that foreign officials appeared to have coordinated activities with undocumented workers.
South Africa said it had formally engaged both the US and Kenyan governments through diplomatic channels to clarify the circumstances surrounding the incident and to prevent further misunderstandings.
The US has not directly responded to questions about the immigration status of the expelled workers but said it had ‘worked to operate the refugee programme within the confines of the law’.
Afrikaner asylum programme under scrutiny
The dispute comes amid heightened tensions between Pretoria and Washington since Trump returned to office. His administration has sharply reduced the overall annual US refugee intake from 125,000 to 7,500, while prioritising Afrikaners, who are mostly descendants of Dutch and French settlers.
Trump has repeatedly claimed that Afrikaners face a ‘genocide’ in South Africa, an assertion strongly rejected by the South African government and not supported by available crime statistics. Multiple studies indicate that white farmers are not more likely to be killed than black South Africans, despite the prominence of farm attacks in political rhetoric.
Earlier this year, Trump announced that Afrikaners would be eligible for refugee status shortly after President Cyril Ramaphosa signed legislation allowing land expropriation without compensation in limited circumstances. The law is intended to address historical land inequalities created under apartheid, during which the white minority acquired most privately owned farmland.
South Africa’s government has stressed that no land has yet been seized under the new legislation and that constitutional safeguards remain in place.
Diplomatic fallout deepens
A first group of around 50 Afrikaners travelled to the US on a chartered flight earlier this year, although it is unclear how many others have relocated or are currently in the application process.
Pretoria has sought to repair relations with Washington, most notably when Ramaphosa led a high-level delegation to the White House earlier this year. That visit reportedly backfired after Trump confronted the South African president with images, videos and news reports alleging state-backed persecution of white citizens.
Relations deteriorated further last month when the US boycotted the G20 summit hosted by South Africa and announced it would not invite South African officials to its meetings after assuming the rotating leadership of the bloc.
The latest exchange underscores how the Afrikaner refugee programme has become a flashpoint in a broader diplomatic rift, with immigration policy, land reform and race increasingly shaping US–South Africa relations.
