iberians, including other Africans who are refugees in neighboring countries and the Diaspora, seeking resettlement with relatives in the United States, will have to reluctantly return home or rethink their strategy as the United States has suspended the programme indefinitely due to widespread fraud.

The US state department says DNA tests revealed that majority of those applying had no family relationship in the US.

Under the Priority Three (P3) family reunification programme which had been running since 1990, thousands of Africans have been allowed to settle in the US.

The scheme offers close family members the opportunity to join loved ones who have adjusted their status and have now made the US their home.

On the contrary, DNA tests done on applicants in seven African countries have showed that only 20 percent of those trying to enter the US actually had a blood relationship.

Initially, DNA tests were carried on in Kenya on some 500 refugees, mainly Somalis and Ethiopians who were awaiting immigration.

State department spokesman Robert Wood said, “After the samples suggested high rates of fraud, we expanded testing to Ethiopia, Uganda, Ghana, Guinea, Gambia and Côte d’Ivoire.”

He furthered that apart from Côte d’Ivoire, which had smaller samples, the results from those tests pointed out a similar level of fraud, which propelled officials to suspend the scheme.

What was done was that the applicant was not tested with the DNA of a relative in the US, rather with each other – say for example a woman with children who claimed to be joining a husband in the US. What was found out was that people claiming to be related often had no link.

The Department of State and the Department of Homeland Security were now examining the future of the scheme, state department spokesman Wood said.