Trump May Accept Only Afrikaners as Refugees

President Trump is considering prioritizing white South Africans in a dramatically decreased quota of refugees allowed into the United States this fiscal year. The figures for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1 haven't been finalized. However, Trump is considering cutting the number of refugee places to as few as 7,500 from a target of 125,000 refugee admissions last year under the Biden administration, officials tell the AP, with the places mostly going to members of the Afrikaner white minority population from South Africa. The US says Afrikaners are being discriminated against by their Black-led government, are the victims of race-based violence, and are having their land seized. The South African government calls those claims "completely false" and the result of misinformation.

Afrikaners, the descendants of mainly Dutch and French colonial settlers who first arrived in South Africa in the 17th century, were at the heart of the apartheid system of racial segregation in South Africa that lasted from 1948 until 1994. That role has led to some lingering racial tensions, but Afrikaners—numbering 2.7 million in a country of 62 million—have generally embraced their country's new multiracial democracy just like most other South Africans and are represented in every facet of South African life. Still, conservative commentators in the US have amplified complaints by some Afrikaner lobby groups in South Africa that they're being persecuted by their Black-led government, with Trump taking up the claims.

The Trump administration announced a new scheme earlier this year to fast-track the relocation of Afrikaner farmers to the US while suspending the refugee program from other parts of the world. Around 70 white South Africans were relocated to the US in two groups in May and June, with US officials promising more. It's not clear how many South Africans have applied for refugee status, and the Afrikaner lobby groups critical of the South African government have called for Afrikaners to stay in their country. The US has extended the refugee program to other racial minorities in South Africa, meaning those of Indian or mixed-race heritage could also apply if they can show they've been discriminated against by affirmative action laws or other policies.