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South Africa criticizes US plan prioritizing white Afrikaner refugees
(MENAFN) The South African government has criticized the United States’ move to give preference to refugee applications from white Afrikaners, rejecting claims of a “white genocide” as widely discredited and unsupported by credible evidence.
Authorities pointed to an open letter recently published by prominent Afrikaner community members, which refuted the narrative and described the relocation initiative as racist. The government also noted that the relatively small number of Afrikaners applying to move to the US suggests they are not facing systematic persecution.
On Thursday, the US administration announced a record-low refugee cap of just 7,500 for the year. Precise figures on how many white South Africans have been admitted under the scheme are not publicly available.
Crime statistics from South Africa do not indicate that white citizens are more frequently victims of violent crime than other racial groups. Earlier this year, the US offered refugee status to Afrikaners, who are primarily descendants of Dutch and French settlers, following the passage of a South African law that allows the government to expropriate land without compensation in rare cases. Most private farmland is owned by white South Africans, who account for just over 7% of the country’s population.
Tensions escalated several months ago when South Africa’s ambassador to the US was expelled after accusing the US president of "mobilising a supremacism" and attempting to "project white victimhood as a dog whistle." In May, during a meeting at the Oval Office, the US president confronted South Africa’s leader and claimed that white farmers in the country were being killed and "persecuted."
He displayed a photograph purportedly showing body bags of murdered white South Africans, but the image was later verified to have originated thousands of miles away in the conflict-stricken Democratic Republic of Congo. Washington did not respond to questions regarding the misidentified image. Additionally, a video shown by the White House to highlight burial sites for murdered white farmers was later revealed to depict a 2020 protest, in which crosses symbolized farmers killed over multiple years.
Authorities pointed to an open letter recently published by prominent Afrikaner community members, which refuted the narrative and described the relocation initiative as racist. The government also noted that the relatively small number of Afrikaners applying to move to the US suggests they are not facing systematic persecution.
On Thursday, the US administration announced a record-low refugee cap of just 7,500 for the year. Precise figures on how many white South Africans have been admitted under the scheme are not publicly available.
Crime statistics from South Africa do not indicate that white citizens are more frequently victims of violent crime than other racial groups. Earlier this year, the US offered refugee status to Afrikaners, who are primarily descendants of Dutch and French settlers, following the passage of a South African law that allows the government to expropriate land without compensation in rare cases. Most private farmland is owned by white South Africans, who account for just over 7% of the country’s population.
Tensions escalated several months ago when South Africa’s ambassador to the US was expelled after accusing the US president of "mobilising a supremacism" and attempting to "project white victimhood as a dog whistle." In May, during a meeting at the Oval Office, the US president confronted South Africa’s leader and claimed that white farmers in the country were being killed and "persecuted."
He displayed a photograph purportedly showing body bags of murdered white South Africans, but the image was later verified to have originated thousands of miles away in the conflict-stricken Democratic Republic of Congo. Washington did not respond to questions regarding the misidentified image. Additionally, a video shown by the White House to highlight burial sites for murdered white farmers was later revealed to depict a 2020 protest, in which crosses symbolized farmers killed over multiple years.
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