South Africa’s government on Friday criticized a shift in U.S. refugee policy that favors Afrikaners, a white minority of Dutch descent.
The Trump administration announced on Thursday that it would cap refugee admissions to the United States at 7,500, down from the previous 125,000, and said Afrikaners would be given priority over other groups.
US President Donald Trump has claimed there has been a “genocide” against Afrikaners in South Africa, and that Afrikaners face persecution and discrimination because of the country’s relief policies and the level of crime in the country.
It is one of the contentious issues that has brought diplomatic relations between South Africa and the United States to an all-time low, with President Trump suspending all financial aid to South Africa and imposing the highest tariffs on the country’s exports to the United States.
The South African government’s Department of International Relations said on Friday that the move was worrying because it “appears to be based on assumptions that remain factually inaccurate”.
“Claims of ‘white genocide’ in South Africa are widely discredited and unsupported by reliable evidence,” said spokesperson Crispin Phiri.
Phiri said the program designed to facilitate the immigration and resettlement of Afrikaner refugees is deeply flawed and ignores the country’s constitutional procedures.
“The limited acceptance of this proposal by South Africans speaks to this reality,” Phiri said.
The U.S. notice, which marks a major shift in policy toward refugees, mentions only Afrikaners as a specific group and says the admission of 7,500 refugees during the 2026 budget year is “justified by humanitarian concerns or otherwise in the national interest.”
President Trump’s asylum claim for Afrikaners has sparked a polarizing debate within South Africa, but has also been largely rejected by many in the Afrikaner community.
This week, a group of prominent Afrikaners, including politicians, activists, authors and businessmen, wrote an open letter rejecting the idea that Afrikaners need to emigrate from South Africa.
“The idea that white South Africans deserve special asylum status because of their race undermines the very principles of the refugee program. Vulnerability, not race, should guide humanitarian policy,” they said in a widely publicized letter.
However, some Afrikaner groups remain highly critical of the South African government’s response to crime and redress policies, while rejecting claims of “white genocide.”
Afriforum, an Afrikaner lobby group, on Thursday said it would not call the killing of white farmers a genocide, but expressed concern about the safety of white people in South Africa.
“This does not mean that Afrikaners will reject or ridicule President Trump’s offer of refugee status. There will be Afrikaners who will apply, and they should be given the option, especially those who were victims of horrific farm attacks and the South African government’s many racist policies,” said Ernst van Zyl, Afrikaners representative.
It is unclear how many white South Africans have applied for refugee status in the United States, but a group of 59 white South Africans were granted asylum in a mass acceptance in May.
Magome writes for the Associated Press.
