US threatens South Africa over personal data release after immigration raid

The United States has threatened the South African government over the detention of American officials working at a center processing Afrikaners’ applications for the U.S. refugee program.

Washington called this week’s raid in Johannesburg, by immigration and law enforcement officers, an attempt to intimidate U.S. government personnel on official business.

Noting that the public release of personal identifying information puts the officials in harm’s way, the Trump administration asked Pretoria to hold the person(s) behind the leak to account.

“Failure by the South African Government to hold those responsible accountable will result in severe consequences,” the State Department warned in a media note on Thursday.

The United States added that it would not tolerate hostile behavior toward its officials or toward any of its citizens “who are legally and peacefully operating abroad.”

South Africa’s Home Affairs Ministry announced that seven Kenyan nationals working at the center were taken into custody for working there illegally, adding that no U.S. officials were arrested during the raid on Tuesday.

According to the U.S. Embassy in South Africa, the U.S. government had contracted Kenya-based RSC Africa to process the refugee applications by white South Africans. RSC is operated by Church World Service, a U.S.-based NGO.

In a statement on Wednesday, the ministry said that the Kenyans working at the location, which was not a diplomatic site, were doing so illegal as they entered the country on tourist visas which did not permit employment.

The Home Affairs Ministry disclosed that the Kenyans had been denied work visas to travel to South Africa for the U.S. refugee program and questioned why eventually came in on tourist visas for the same purpose.

“The presence of foreign nationals apparently coordinating with undocumented workers naturally raises serious questions about intent and diplomatic protocol,” the statement reads.

The Kenyans have been given deportation orders and banned from entering South Africa for five years. The authorities, meanwhile, confirmed “formal diplomatic engagements with both the United States and Kenya to resolve this matter.”

The situation has heightened the U.S.-South Africa diplomatic row. President Donald Trump’s accusation of the persecution of white Afrikaner minority in South Africa occasioned the establishment of the program offering them refugee status in America.

Both nations are also at loggerheads over next year’s G20 Summit to be held in Miami, Florida. The U.S., which assumed the forum’s presidency this month, boycotted the G20 Summit in Johannesburg, and has vowed not to invite South Africa to the 2026 gathering.