A US-funded flight carrying the primary group of 49 white South Africans has landed in Washington the place the Trump administration is to grant them refugee standing.
President Donald Trump has stated the refugee functions for the nation’s Afrikaner minority had been expedited as they had been victims of “racial discrimination”.
The South African authorities has denied this saying any allegations of persecution wouldn’t meet the edge required beneath “refugee regulation”.
Immigrant rights activists have criticised the fast-track refugee initiative, describing it as “unfair” for the “most susceptible”. The Trump administration has halted virtually all refugee admissions together with these coming from international locations at conflict.
The group of white South African refugees, who landed in Washington DC on Monday, acquired a heat welcome from US authorities on the airport.
Some held younger kids and waved small American flags within the arrival space adorned with pink, white and blue balloons on the partitions.
Often the processing of refugees within the US takes months, even years, however this group has been quick tracked. UNHCR – the United Nations refugee company – confirmed to the BBC it wasn’t concerned within the vetting, as is often the case.
Requested instantly on Monday why Afrikaners’ refugee functions had been expedited in contrast with different teams, Trump stated a “genocide” was happening and that “white farmers” particularly had been being focused.
“Farmers are being killed, they occur to be white, however whether or not they’re white or black makes no distinction to me.”
The US has criticised home South African coverage, accusing the federal government of seizing land from white farmers with none compensation – one thing the southern African nation says has not occurred.
In January President Cyril Ramaphosa signed a controversial regulation which permits the federal government to grab privately owned land with out compensation in sure circumstances, when it’s deemed “equitable and within the public curiosity”.
There had been anger in South Africa over the sluggish tempo of land reform within the three a long time for the reason that finish of the racist apartheid system.
White South Africans make up 7.3% of the inhabitants, however personal the overwhelming majority of privately held farmland, in accordance with a 2017 authorities report.
Considered one of Trump’s closest advisers, South African-born Elon Musk, has beforehand stated there was a “genocide of white folks” in South Africa and accused the federal government of passing “racist possession legal guidelines”.
The claims of a genocide of white folks have been extensively discredited.
On Monday, Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen described the resettlement as “baffling” given the “indefinite suspension for 1000’s of reliable asylum seekers” from different international locations.
In an announcement despatched to the BBC, Gregory Meeks, rating Democratic member of the Home International Affairs Committee, stated the Trump administration’s refugee resettlement was “not only a racist canine whistle, it is a politically motivated rewrite of historical past”.
“Refugee coverage ought to defend the susceptible, not serve an extremist agenda,” he stated.
Melissa Keaney, a lawyer with the Worldwide Refugee Help mission, stated the White Home’s resolution to fast-track the Afrikaners’ arrival amounted to “lots of hypocrisy and unequal remedy”.
“The pace at which that (the Afrikaners) had been processed is outstanding and unprecedented, and required, I feel, lots of form of bending guidelines by the state division and altering process,” she informed the BBC.
Her organisation is suing the Trump administration after it indefinitely suspended the US Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) in January. She stated that coverage had left over 120,000 conditionally accredited refugees in limbo.
Afrikaner writer Max du Preez informed the BBC’s Newsday radio programme that claims of persecution of white South Africans had been a “complete absurdity” and “primarily based on nothing”.
Figures from the South African police present that in 2024, 44 murders had been recorded on farms and smaller plots of agricultural land, with eight of these killed being farmers.
South Africa doesn’t report on crime statistics damaged down by race however a majority of the nation’s farmers are white, whereas different folks dwelling on farms, similar to staff, are largely black.
Bilateral relations between the US and South Africa have been strained since President Trump first tasked his administration with resettling Afrikaners, a gaggle with largely Dutch ancestry, within the US.
In March, South Africa’s ambassador to the US, Ebrahim Rasool, was expelled after accusing President Trump of utilizing “white victimhood as a canine whistle”, resulting in the US accusing Mr Rasool of “race-baiting”.
The US has additionally criticised South Africa for taking an “aggressive” place in opposition to Israel on the Worldwide Court docket of Justice (ICJ), the place Pretoria has accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s authorities of genocide in opposition to Palestinians – a declare the Israelis strongly reject.
President Trump’s openness to accepting Afrikaner refugees comes because the US has engaged in a wider crackdown on migrants and asylum seekers from different international locations.
Further reporting by Khanyisile Ngcobo in Johannesburg, Nomia Iqbal & Cai Pigliucci in Washington DC
