The first set of 49 white South Africans to be granted refugee status by President Donald Trump’s administration are on their way to the US.
On Sunday they boarded a flight from Johannesburg which is due to land in Washington DC later on Monday.
This comes after a weekend of speculation about when the Afrikaners would leave for America, amid criticism from the South African government who described the US resettlement scheme as “politically motivated”.
Relations between South Africa and the US have been tense for months, after an executive order in February in which President Trump stated that Afrikaners were victims of “racial discrimination”.
The US has criticised domestic South African policy, accusing the government of seizing land from white farmers without any compensation – something which the southern African nation says has not happened.
Top Trump adviser, South African-born Elon Musk, has previously said there was a “genocide of white people” in South Africa and accused the government of passing “racist ownership laws”.
The claims of a genocide of white people have been widely discredited.
- In a statement on Friday, South Africa’s foreign ministry said accusations the government discriminated against the country’s white minority were “unfounded” and that the US’s resettlement scheme was an attempt to undermine the country’s “constitutional democracy”.
The statement added that the country had worked “tirelessly” to stop discrimination, given its history of racial oppression under apartheid.
Bilateral tensions have been strained for some times as President Trump tasked his administration with formulating plans to potentially resettle Afrikaners, a group with mostly Dutch ancestry, in the US.
In March, South Africa’s ambassador to the US, Ebrahim Rasool, was expelled after accusing President Trump of using “white victimhood as a dog whistle”, leading to the US accusing Mr Rasool of “race-baiting”.
The US has also criticised South Africa for taking an “aggressive” position against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), where Pretoria has accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government of genocide against people in Gaza – a claim which the Israelis strongly reject.
The current group of white South African refugees comprises 49 people, who are expected to land in Washington DC later on Monday, before continuing to Texas.
President Trump’s openness to accepting Afrikaner refugees comes as the US has engaged in a wider crackdown on migrants and asylum seekers from other countries.
