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US stops refugee programme
The United States has halted a programme that united African refugees with relatives in America after DNA testing revealed many people were lying about family links, the State Department said yesterday.
- Reuters
- Published: 23:42 August 21, 2008
\Washington: The United States has halted a programme that united African refugees with relatives in America after DNA testing revealed many people were lying about family links, the State Department said yesterday.
Thousands of Africans have been allowed to settle in the United States since 1990 under the family reunification programme, which accepts relatives such as parents or children of people who have already been admitted into the United States as refugees, or who were granted asylum.
But recent DNA tests on applicants in seven African countries showed only about 20 percent actually had a family relationship, State Department spokesman Robert Wood said.
The applicants were not tested for a DNA match with their claimed relatives in the United States, but with each other to see whether they were related as claimed, another department spokesman said. For example, a mother with several children applying to join a husband in America would be tested to see whether she was in fact related to the children.
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