The Trump administration warmly greeted 49 white South Africans upon their arrival in the United States on May 12, after granting them refugee status as alleged victims of racial discrimination − a charge disputed by the South African government and human rights activists.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has said accusations of racial persecution of white South Africans is a “completely false narrative.”
President Donald Trump’s welcoming of South African’s white minority stands in contrast to his revocation of refugee status for hundreds of thousands who have fled violence and political persecution from countries such as Haitia, Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua. Hours after he took office, Trump shut down the refugee resettlement program, effectively ending a pathway for refugees to secure asylum in the U.S. and choking off all funding for refugee resettlement.
Ahead of their arrival, Trump said the white South Africans are the victims of “genocide” – an accusation the South African government says is not supported by evidence.
Genocide is defined in the Genocide Convention as the killing of members of a group because of their race, religion or national origin, as in the Holocaust.
“White farmers are being brutally killed,” Trump told reporters in White House Roosevelt Room.
However, white South Africans are less likely to be murder victims than Black South Africans. The group Genocide Watch has noted that while South Africa’s population is 8% white, whites make up just 2% of its murder victims.
The South African government said on May 9 that “The South Africa Police Services statistics on farm related crimes do not support allegations of violent crime targeted at farmers generally or any particular race.”
“Genocide has a very clear definition and what is happening in South Africa with white South Africans does not fit the definition at all,” said Mandeep Tiwana, chief officer of evidence and engagement at CIVICUS, a human rights advocacy organization headquartered in South Africa. “In fact, white South Africans are a privileged minority.”
Trump has also justified the granting of refugee status on the grounds that white South African farmers are having their land confiscated. Ramaphosa signed a law authorizing the government to seize land in January.
Until 1994, South Africa was controlled by the country’s white minority — many of them descendants of Dutch colonists known as Afrikaners — under the apartheid system of racial segregation, which deprived Black South Africans of basic civil rights. Whites still own a majority of land and control a hugely outsized share of the country’s wealth.
Deputy Secretary of State Chris Landau personally welcomed the South Africans at Dulles Airport near Washington, D.C., saying he respected “what you had to deal with” and “the long tradition of your people,” in reference to the Afrikaner ethnic group.
“Welcome to the United States of America. It is such an honor for us to receive you here today,” Landau told the group.
‘It’s just performative’
Elon Musk, who is South African, has accused the government of discriminating against its white population since before he joined the White House as an advisor and head of the Department of Government Efficiency.
Laura Thompson Osuri, the executive director of Homes Without Borders, was among three protesters demonstrating near the airport’s check-in counters as the South Africans arrived on Monday afternoon. “Afrikaners are not refugees,” read her protest sign.
“They’re letting in these Afrikaners as quote, unquote refugees, while tens of thousands…that are actual refugees are not allowed to enter,” Osuri said.
Osuri, whose organization helps refugees resettle in the Washington area, called admitting the Afrikaners as the Trump administration has shut down channels for refugees from other countries “absurd.”
“It’s just performative,” she said. “They’re not fleeing war, violence, persecution.”
Trump’s shutdown of all refugee admissions – except for white South Africans – has drawn heavy criticism from humanitarian organizations.
The Episcopal Church’s migration ministry said on Monday it would end all its refugee resettlement grant agreements after the Trump administration asked it to help resettle the Afrikaners.
“It has been painful to watch one group of refugees, selected in a highly unusual manner, receive preferential treatment over many others who have been waiting in refugee camps or dangerous conditions for years,” Sean Rowe, the ministry’s presiding bishop, said in a letter.
Contributing: Joey Garrison, Ben Adler
This article has been updated to provide additional information.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: White South Africans arrive in US. Trump’s ‘genocide’ claim disputed
