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The Trump administration is set to relocate a small number of white South Africans to the US next week, marking the beginning of a controversial program designed to resettle a minority group claiming persecution at the hands of their Black-led government.
The move comes as part of a fast-tracked application process initiated following President Trump’s announcement of the relocation effort in February.
This initiative stands in stark contrast to the administration’s broader anti-migrant stance, which has seen the suspension of various refugee programs and a halt to arrivals from regions including Iraq, Afghanistan, and much of sub-Saharan Africa.
The prioritization of these South African cases has drawn criticism from refugee advocacy groups, raising questions about the criteria being used to determine eligibility and the apparent disparity in treatment compared to other displaced populations.
The South African government said the U.S. allegations that the white minority Afrikaners in question are being persecuted are “completely false,” the result of misinformation and an inaccurate view of its country. It cited the fact that Afrikaners are among the richest and most successful people in the country, and said they are amongst “the most economically privileged.”
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Afrikaners are the descendants of mainly Dutch and French colonial settlers who first came to South Africa in the 17th century. There are around 2.7 million Afrikaners among South Africa’s population of 62 million, which is more than 80% Black. Many in South Africa are puzzled by claims that Afrikaners are persecuted and meet the requirements to be refugees.
Afrikaners are part of South Africa’s everyday multi-racial life: many are successful business leaders and some serve in government as Cabinet ministers and deputy ministers. Their language is widely spoken — including by non-Afrikaners — and is recognized as an official language, and churches and other institutions reflecting Afrikaner culture hold prominence in almost every city and town.
So what persecution is the U.S. alleging?
Farm attacks
Trump and his South African-born adviser Elon Musk have accused the South African government of having racist anti-white laws and policies, but the claims of persecution center on a relatively small number of violent farm attacks and robberies on white people in rural communities.
The U.S. alleges those attacks are racially motivated and the South African government is “fueling” them by allowing anti-white rhetoric from some political parties not in government and not doing enough to protect rural Afrikaner communities. The government strongly denies that and has condemned the farm attacks, but says their cause is being deliberately mischaracterized.
Violent attacks on farm owners in South Africa have been a problem for years but represent a small percentage of the country’s extremely high violent crime rates, which affect all races. The government says there is no targeting of white people in South Africa and no persecution, and farm attacks are part of its struggles with violent crime.
An Afrikaner group called AfriForum records farm attacks and said there were 49 farm homicides in South Africa in 2023. Those are set against a total of more than 20,000 homicides in South Africa a year. Experts say rural communities are susceptible to crime because of their remoteness and less police presence, but Black farm owners and workers are also killed in violent robberies.
Still, many rural white communities have long expressed fear at the threat of violence and feel authorities are not doing enough to protect them. Those claims appear to be part of the requirements to claim refugee status in the U.S., although no details of the application process have been announced.
Affirmative action and ‘reverse racism’
The Trump administration has also criticized South Africa’s affirmative action policies as racist against whites and has falsely claimed white South Africans are having their land taken away by the government under a new expropriation law that promotes “racially discriminatory property confiscation.” No land has been expropriated, but Afrikaners who make up many rural communities have raised fears that their land might be targeted.
South Africa does have laws designed to advance employment opportunities for Blacks, and many white South Africans and white-led political parties have also criticized them and called them racist and counter-productive.
Some Afrikaner groups say the employment, land and other laws are designed to limit their opportunities in South Africa.
Afrikaners were at the heart of South Africa’s previous apartheid system of white minority rule and there is a sentiment among some that they and their culture are being targeted in a kind of reverse racism by the Black-led government as punishment for that. The government denies that.
Not the only whites in South Africa
Afrikaners make up just some of South Africa’s approximately 4.5 million white people, which also include those who have British and other heritage.
But the Trump administration’s refugee program only offers relocation to Afrikaners, who are largely seen as holding conservative and Christian values that might align with the politics of the Trump administration.
It’s not clear how many Afrikaners have applied for or been granted refugee status, but a U.S.-based South African business group has said it had a list of tens of thousands who had expressed interest.
U.S. officials and a document obtained by The Associated Press said a first group of more than two dozen Afrikaners from around four families will arrive Monday at Dulles International Airport outside Washington.
