Trump simply introduced a gaggle of white South Africans to the US as refugees. What are they escaping?

By GERALD IMRAY

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — The Trump administration introduced a small variety of white South Africans to the USA as refugees Monday. It says it’s the beginning of a bigger relocation effort for members of the minority Afrikaner group who’re being persecuted by their Black-led authorities due to their race.

The 49 South Africans had their functions fast-tracked by the U.S. after President Donald Trump introduced the relocation program in February. He mentioned Monday that white Afrikaner farmers are dealing with a “genocide” of their homeland, an allegation strongly denied by the South African authorities.

The Trump administration has taken an anti-migrant stance, suspending refugee packages and halting arrivals from different components of the world, together with Iraq, Afghanistan and most international locations in sub-Saharan Africa.

Refugee teams have questioned why the white South Africans are being prioritized.

South Africa says there’s no persecution

The South African authorities mentioned the U.S. allegations that Afrikaners are being persecuted are “completely false,” the results of misinformation and an inaccurate view of its nation. It cited the truth that Afrikaners are among the many richest and most profitable individuals within the nation, and mentioned they’re amongst “the most economically privileged.”

Afrikaners are the descendants of primarily Dutch and French colonial settlers who first got here to South Africa within the seventeenth century. There are round 2.7 million Afrikaners amongst South Africa’s inhabitants of 62 million, which is greater than 80% Black. Many in South Africa are puzzled by claims that they’re persecuted.

Afrikaners are South Africa’s largest white group and a part of the nation’s on a regular basis multi-racial life. Many are profitable enterprise leaders and a few serve in authorities. Their language, Afrikaans, is broadly spoken — together with by non-Afrikaners — and is acknowledged as an official language, and church buildings and different establishments reflecting Afrikaner tradition maintain prominence in virtually each metropolis and city.

Afrikaners have been the leaders of the apartheid system of white minority rule that led to 1994.

So what persecution is the U.S. alleging?

Farm assaults

Trump and his South African-born adviser Elon Musk have accused the South African authorities of getting racist anti-white legal guidelines and insurance policies, however the claims of persecution and genocide middle on a comparatively small variety of violent farm assaults and robberies on white individuals in rural communities.

The U.S. alleges these assaults are racially motivated and the South African authorities is “fueling” them by permitting anti-white rhetoric in politics and never doing sufficient to guard Afrikaner communities. The federal government has condemned the farm assaults, however says their trigger is being intentionally mischaracterized.

Violent assaults on farm homeowners in South Africa have been an issue for years however characterize a small share of the nation’s extraordinarily excessive violent crime charges, which have an effect on all races. The federal government says there isn’t any concentrating on of white individuals and farm assaults are a part of its struggles with crime.

Teams representing farmers have recorded round 50 or much less farm homicides a 12 months within the final two years in South Africa. These figures are set in opposition to a complete of greater than 20,000 homicides a 12 months affecting all races.

“There is no data at all that backs that there is persecution of white South Africans or white Afrikaners in particular,” South African Overseas Minister Ronald Lamola mentioned. “White farmers get affected by crime just like any other South Africans.”

Nonetheless, many rural white communities have lengthy expressed concern at the specter of violence and really feel assaults in opposition to them in house invasions and robberies are particularly brutal.

“So, we’ve essentially extended citizenship to those people … to escape from that violence and come here,” Trump mentioned.

Affirmative motion and ‘reverse racism’

The Trump administration has additionally criticized South Africa’s affirmative motion insurance policies as racist in opposition to whites and has falsely claimed white South Africans are having their land taken away by the federal government below a brand new expropriation regulation that promotes “racially discriminatory property confiscation.”

No land has been expropriated, however Afrikaners who make up many rural communities have raised fears their land could be focused.

South Africa has legal guidelines designed to advance employment alternatives for Blacks, and plenty of white South Africans and white-led political events have additionally criticized them and referred to as them racist and counter-productive.

Some Afrikaner teams say the employment, land and different legal guidelines are designed to particularly restrict their alternatives in South Africa in a sort of reverse racism as punishment for Afrikaners’ function in apartheid. The federal government rejects that and says the legal guidelines are designed to offer Blacks entry to jobs and land they have been denied below apartheid.

Not the one racial minority in South Africa

Afrikaners should not the one racial minority in South Africa, and never the one white minority. South Africa additionally has practically 2 million white individuals with British or different heritage.

The Trump administration’s program initially solely referred to Afrikaners. However in new pointers launched by the U.S. Embassy on Monday, candidates for refugee standing should be “of Afrikaner ethnicity or be a member of a racial minority in South Africa.” Different racial minorities embrace a gaggle of round 5 million with biracial heritage, in addition to individuals with Indian and different south Asian heritage.

It’s not clear what number of South Africans have utilized for or been granted refugee standing, however U.S. State Division spokesperson Tammy Bruce mentioned the administration would welcome extra Afrikaners as refugees within the coming months.

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Related Press writers Michelle Gumede and Mogomotsi Magome in Johannesburg contributed to this report.

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Initially Revealed: Could 12, 2025 at 1:27 PM PDT