U.S. stops African refugee program after DNA tests

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has halted a program that united African refugees with relatives in America after DNA testing revealed many people were lying about family links, the State Department said on Wednesday.

Thousands of Africans have been allowed to settle in the United States since 1990 under the family reunification program, 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.

"The program has been suspended," Wood said, adding that the government is "looking into it further to see what we can do."

The program had been suspended in Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Guinea and Gambia, another department spokesman said. He said he could not speculate whether and when it would resume.

Most applicants previously had come through those countries, although they were sometimes refugees from elsewhere. Many of the 3,000 who were tested were from Somalia, Ethiopia, or Liberia, the spokesman said.

(Editing by Sandra Maler)