The South African government has expressed criticism regarding the United States' decision to prioritize refugee applications from white Afrikaners. This development occurred as the US President's administration announced its lowest annual refugee cap on record, set at 7,500.
South African Government Response
The South African government stated that assertions of a white genocide have been widely discredited due to a lack of reliable evidence. It referenced an open letter, published by prominent members of the Afrikaner community, that rejected this narrative. Some signatories of the letter described the US relocation scheme as racist. The government also suggested that the limited number of white South African Afrikaners applying to relocate to the US indicates a lack of persecution.
South Africa's crime statistics do not show that white individuals are disproportionately victims of violent crime compared to other racial groups.
US Refugee Policy and Related Claims
Earlier this year, the administration of US President Donald Trump offered refugee status to Afrikaners, who are primarily descendants of Dutch and French settlers. This offer followed South African President Cyril Ramaphosa signing a law allowing the government to seize land without compensation in rare instances.
In May, President Trump reportedly addressed President Ramaphosa in the Oval Office, alleging that white farmers in South Africa were being killed and persecuted. During this discussion, President Trump displayed a photograph he purported to show body bags of white people in South Africa. Reuters news agency later identified this image as one they had taken in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Washington did not comment on the claim of misidentification. The White House also presented a video, which it stated showed burial sites for murdered white farmers, but these scenes later emerged to be from a 2020 protest where crosses represented farmers killed over multiple years.
Land Ownership and Diplomatic Context
Most private farmland in South Africa is owned by white South Africans, who constitute just over 7% of the national population.
Several months prior, South Africa's ambassador to Washington, Ebrahim Rasool, was expelled after accusing President Trump of "mobilising a supremacism" and attempting to "project white victimhood as a dog whistle."