South Africa arrests Kenyans working at US-run Afrikaner ‘refugee’ centre

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South African officials have arrested seven Kenyan nationals working in a “refugee” centre set up by the US to process asylum applications of white Afrikaners, who Washington claims are being persecuted. 

South Africa’s Department of Home Affairs said those arrested had entered the country on tourist visas then illegally began working at the US-run centre. Earlier visa applications submitted by Kenyan nationals to carry out the work had been rejected, the department added.

“The presence of foreign officials apparently coordinating with undocumented workers naturally raises serious questions about intent and diplomatic protocol,” the department said in a statement.

“No US officials were arrested in the process, the operation was not conducted at a diplomatic site, and no members of the public or prospective ‘refugees’ were harassed,” the department added.

The arrests mark the latest twist in a long-running diplomatic dispute between South Africa and the US, much of which has centred on Afrikaners, whom Donald Trump claims are being persecuted.

A white minority group who trace their roots to 17th-century Dutch settlers, Afrikaners later led the white nationalist government that implemented apartheid after the second world war, and today constitute less than 5 per cent of the country’s population. 

Trump — and his former close adviser, the South African-born Elon Musk — have seized on discredited fringe claims that Afrikaners have been an oppressed minority since apartheid fell and the country became a multiracial democracy.

In April, under a project called “Mission South Africa”, the Trump administration began turning empty office space in Johannesburg and the capital of Pretoria into temporary housing and processing centres for Afrikaners seeking asylum in the US. The African National Congress, South Africa’s biggest political party, called the plan “madness”.

The US has pushed for Afrikaners to resettle, offering them an expedited service even as it takes a hard line against refugees globally.

In May, a small group of Afrikaners, many waving miniature US flags, were welcomed at Washington Dulles Airport by Christopher Landau, US deputy secretary of state, who alleged that the group had “faced the threat not only of expropriation but also of direct violence” as well as “invasions” of their homes and farms.

It is unclear how many Afrikaners have taken up the US offer. Afrikaner groups say interest has been sluggish and there have been only a handful of US-chartered flights for applicants.

In July, the US asked South African officials to fast-track work visas for about 30 Kenyans. American officials closely followed the applications, asking for regular updates on their progress, a South African official told the Financial Times. After the visas were rejected, the Kenyan nationals reapplied, in some cases more than once, the official added.

South Africa initially took a conciliatory approach towards the Trump administration despite the unfounded claims about white Afrikaners, but that stance has increasingly hardened. Still, it is unlikely to play hardball with one of its biggest trading partners, analysts said.

“At most, [the arrests] were a warning shot to the local Afrikaner groups who have been peddling this narrative,” said Menzi Ndlovu, lead country analyst with Signal Risk. “Beyond that South Africa will keep its interactions with the US very measured.”

The US has also been angered by South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, where it has accused Israel of genocide during its war against Hamas in Gaza, something Israel vigorously denies.

After the US last month boycotted the G20, held in South Africa, President Cyril Ramaphosa refused a request to hand over the rotating presidency of the multilateral body to a junior US diplomat. Trump then banned South Africa from attending next year’s meetings in Miami.