Episcopal church won't assist resettling South Africans 'refugees' in US

The Episcopal Church in the United States is refusing a directive from the federal government to help resettle white Afrikaans-speaking South Africans granted refugee status.

Its presiding Bishop, Sean Rowe, said on Monday that the church’s migration ministries will instead halt its decades-long partnership with the government.

Rowe said the church has a longstanding “commitment to racial justice and reconciliation” and that it could not “be itself” if it took part in this step.

The group, which arrived in the US on Monday, is at the centre of a growing row as to why they were granted fast-tracked refugee status by President Donald Trump.

He has falsely claimed they’re victims of a “genocide”, even as his administration halted all other refugee admissions, including for people living in warzones.

Rowe said it made no sense that the South Africans had been fast-tracked.

“We're sad and really ashamed that many refugees who are being denied entrance to the United States are brave people who have worked alongside our military in Iraq and Afghanistan, and now face danger in their home countries because of their service to our country,” he said.

The group jumped ahead of thousands of would-be refugees overseas who had been undergoing years of vetting and processing.

South Africa’s government has denied allegations of discrimination against the country’s white minority citizens.