South Africa has strongly pushed back against the United States’ initiative to prioritize refugee applications from white Afrikaners. The South African government asserts that claims of a “white genocide” within the country have been widely debunked and lack credible evidence.
The government pointed to an open letter recently published by prominent figures within the Afrikaner community, which reportedly rejects the “white genocide” narrative. Some signatories of this letter have even gone as far as to describe the US relocation plan as racist.
Furthermore, South Africa highlighted that the relatively small number of white Afrikaners who have applied to relocate to the US suggests they are not facing the kind of persecution that would warrant such a measure.
This response comes after the US administration announced its lowest annual refugee cap on record, setting it at just 7,500. While exact figures for white South Africans admitted through this scheme are not publicly available, the South African government has indicated that recent crime statistics do not show white individuals being disproportionately targeted by violent crime compared to other racial groups.
The controversy stems from an earlier decision by US President Donald Trump to offer refugee status to Afrikaners, who are primarily descendants of Dutch and French settlers. This move followed South African President Cyril Ramaphosa signing a law that permits the government to seize land without compensation in specific circumstances.
The debate intensified earlier this year when South Africa’s ambassador to Washington, Ebrahim Rasool, was expelled after accusing Trump of “mobilizing a supremacism” and attempting to “project white victimhood as a dog whistle.” During a meeting in May, President Trump presented President Ramaphosa with a photograph he claimed showed body bags containing white victims in South Africa. However, Reuters later identified this image as having been taken in the Democratic Republic of Congo, not South Africa.
The White House has not commented on the alleged misidentification of the image. Additionally, a video presented by the White House, purportedly showing burial sites of murdered white farmers, was later revealed to be footage from a 2020 protest where crosses symbolized farmers who had died over many years.
More BBC stories from South Africa:
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- Anti-migrant movement blocks foreigners from South African healthcare
- South Africa debates changing ‘colonial’ name of world-famous Kruger park
- Steve Biko’s new inquest should lead to justice, family tells BBC