Afrikaan South Africans supporting US President Donald Trump and South African and US tech billionaire Elon Musk collect in entrance of the US Embassy in Pretoria, on February 15, 2025 for an illustration.
MARCO LONGARI/AFP
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MARCO LONGARI/AFP
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — The U.S. authorities has formally granted 54 Afrikaans South Africans, white descendants of primarily Dutch colonizers, refugee standing and they’re anticipated to land within the U.S. on Monday Might 12, three sources with information of the matter have advised NPR. The sources didn’t need to be named as a result of they work for the U.S. authorities and worry for his or her careers.
U.S. authorities on Thursday had been attempting to rearrange a constitution flight that might carry the South Africans to Dulles Airport close to Washington, D.C., on Monday morning, nevertheless it’s not clear if they are going to be allowed to land there. If that’s not doable then they are going to be despatched on industrial flights, in accordance with the sources.
NPR has additionally seen an e mail confirming the plan, and that the brand new arrivals will then be despatched on to their remaining locations in numerous states throughout the nation.
The group are the primary group of Afrikaners to be accepted by the U.S. after President Donald Trump signed an govt order in February providing them doable resettlement.
“The Secretary of State and the Secretary of Homeland Safety shall take acceptable steps, according to regulation, to prioritize humanitarian reduction, together with admission and resettlement by way of the USA Refugee Admissions Program, for Afrikaners in South Africa who’re victims of unjust racial discrimination,” the order, signed February 7, mentioned. It additionally reduce assist to South Africa.
The sources mentioned a press convention was deliberate for the group’s arrival at Dulles airport, which might be attended by excessive stage officers from the Departments of State and Homeland Safety.
States which have agreed to absorb the South Africans embrace: Colorado, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Washington, West Virgina, California, Idaho, Montana, North Carolina, Nevada, and New York, one supply mentioned. A number of of the individuals granted refugee standing have household ties within the U.S., they mentioned.
The supply famous it’s uncommon for refugees to be welcomed on the airport by U.S. dignitaries, and mentioned the method of interviewing them in South Africa and granting them refugee standing has been unusually fast.
The Afrikaners have been given P1 refugee standing. In response to the State Division web site that is given to “particular person circumstances referred by designated entities to this system by advantage of their circumstances and obvious want for resettlement.”
The South Africans will now have a pathway to U.S. citizenship and be eligible for presidency advantages.
One supply advised NPR the UN’s Worldwide Group for Migration had refused to be concerned within the course of. A spokesperson for the IOM didn’t instantly reply to request for remark.
President Trump, his South African-born adviser Elon Musk, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, have all been vocal about what they declare is the persecution Afrikaners — lots of whom are farmers — face in South Africa.
Trump has accused the South African authorities of “performing some horrible issues” and mentioned “they’re confiscating land, and truly they’re doing issues which are maybe far worse than that.”
The South African authorities handed a brand new land reform invoice earlier this yr, however up to now no land has been confiscated and the federal government says a clause permitting for “expropriation with out compensation” could be used solely in uncommon situations.
South Africa’s Division of Worldwide Relations has additionally hit again in opposition to Trump’s allegations that Afrikaners are discriminated in opposition to.
“It’s ironic that the manager order makes provision for refugee standing within the U.S. for a gaggle in South Africa that is still amongst essentially the most economically privileged, whereas susceptible individuals within the U.S. from different elements of the world are being deported and denied asylum regardless of actual hardship,” the division mentioned in a February assertion.
On his first day again in workplace, Trump ordered the realignment of the “refugees admissions program,” successfully suspending it, explaining: “America lacks the flexibility to soak up massive numbers of migrants, and particularly, refugees, into its communities in a way that doesn’t compromise the provision of assets for People, that protects their security and safety.”
