A group of 49 white South Africans departed their homeland on Sunday for the United States on a private charter plane, having been offered refugee status by the Trump administration under a new program announced in February. The group, which included families and small children, was due to arrive at Dulles International Airport outside Washington DC on Monday morning local time. They are the first Afrikaners, a white minority group in South Africa, to be relocated after Donald Trump issued an executive order in February accusing South Africa’s Black-led government of racial discrimination against them and announcing a program to offer them relocation to the US.
The South African government said it is “completely false” that Afrikaners are being persecuted. Refugee groups have questioned why white South Africans are being prioritized ahead of people from countries wracked by war and natural disasters. Vetting for refugee status in the US often takes years. The Trump administration says that the South African government is pursuing anti-white and racially discriminatory policies through affirmative action laws and a new land expropriation law it says targets Afrikaners’ land. The South African government denies US claims that Afrikaners are being targeted in racially motivated attacks in some rural communities.
South Africa also denies US claims that there is any justification for the relocation of Afrikaners. The first Afrikaner refugees were traveling on a flight operated by the Tulsa, Oklahoma-based charter company Omni Air International. The government says there were no criminal cases or outstanding warrants against them, and they would have to be vetted by police before being allowed to leave. The South African government said it wouldn’t stop them and respected their freedom of choice. The White House deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, told reporters on Friday that what is happening to Afrikaners in South Africa “fits the textbook definition of why the refugee program was created.” The relocation of Afrikaners is part of a “much larger-scale relocation effort,” according to Miller.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/11/trump-administration-south-african-refugees
