First group of white South Africans lands in U.S. under Trump refugee plan
Global News
The South African government vehemently denies that Afrikaners are being discriminated against, and called the Trump administration's claims "completely false."
A cohort of 49 South Africans left the country on Saturday for the U.S. on a privately chartered plane after being granted refugee status by the Trump administration as part of an anti-discrimination program announced in February.
The group, which included families and small children, was due to arrive at Dulles International Airport outside Washington D.C. on Monday morning local time, according to Collen Msibi, a spokesperson for South Africa’s transport ministry.
They are the first Afrikaners, an ethnic group of predominantly Dutch and French descent whose ancestors settled in South Africa in the 17th century, to be relocated to the U.S. after President Trump issued an executive order on Feb. 7, accusing South Africa’s Black-led government of racial discrimination against the group and announcing a program to relocate them.
“In shocking disregard of its citizens’ rights, the Republic of South Africa (South Africa) recently enacted Expropriation Act 13 of 2024 (Act), to enable the government of South Africa to seize ethnic minority Afrikaners’ agricultural property without compensation,” the Trump administration executive order states.
The South African government vehemently denies that Afrikaners are being discriminated against, and called the Trump administration’s claim “completely false,” adding that it paints an unrepresentative picture of the country.
In a press conference on Monday, when asked about the incoming group of Afrikaners, whom the U.S. has chosen to welcome as refugees at a time when the country is also executing mass deportations of foreign nationals, many of whom hold legal status in the country, Trump said it’s because “they are being killed, and we don’t want to see people be killed.”
Trump added that he will meet with South African leaders next week to discuss the issue further.
“South Africa leadership is coming to see me, I understand sometime next week, and we are supposed to have, I guess, a G20 meeting there or something. But we’re having a G20 meeting, I don’t know how we can go unless that situation is taken care of,” he told reporters, adding that the South African government’s treatment of Afrikaners amounts to genocide.
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The report was released to Global News under the Access to Information Act