South Africa has arrested seven Kenyans for illegally working in the country on a United States program to resettle white Afrikaners, “They were arrested and issued with deportation orders, and will be prohibited from entering South Africa again for a five-year period,” the Department of Home Affairs has said.

US President Donald Trump, earlier this year, accused South Africa of discriminating against white minorities, especially Afrikaners, even suggesting they might be subject to a “genocide,” and prioritizing them for a refugee resettlement program.

South Africa’s government, rights groups and prominent Afrikaners have dismissed his claim as baseless.

Seven Kenyans were arrested after intelligence reports revealed that people that “had recently entered South Africa on tourist visas and had illegally taken up work” at the centre, said a statement from South Africa’s department of home affairs.

They had previously been denied work visas but were found “engaging in work despite only being in possession of tourist visas, in clear violation of their conditions of entry into the country”, the statement said.

South Africa also expressed concern that foreign officials appeared to have coordinated with undocumented workers and said it had reached out to the US and Kenya to resolve the matter.

The home affairs department said the raid showcased the commitment that South Africa shared “with the United States to combating illegal immigration and visa abuse in all its forms”.

No US officials were arrested, and the operation was not at a diplomatic site, it said.

In a statement issued to The Hill – a US publication, Tommy Pigott, principal deputy spokesperson for the State Department, said the department was “seeking immediate clarification from the South African government” on the issue and expected “full cooperation and accountability”.

“Interfering in our refugee operations in unacceptable,” The Hill quoted Pigott saying.

The processing of applications by white South Africans is being done by RSC Africa, according to the US embassy in South Africa. RSC Africa is a Kenyan-based refugee support centre operated by Church World Service (CWS).

This is one of the issues that have caused a sharp deterioration in relations between South Africa and the Trump administration.

Last month, the US boycotted the G20 summit in South Africa and has said it would not invite South African officials to its meetings since it took over leadership of the grouping of the world’s biggest economies.