The first plane with white South Africans who received the refugee status from the Trump government, landed on Washington Dulles International Airport on Monday morning, according to a website for following flights.
The arrival marks a drastic reversal in the refugee policy of the United States, who have long aimed at helping people who help the flights for war, famine and genocide. President Trump essentially stopped all the programs for refugees on his first day before creating a path for Afrikaners, a white ethnic minority that ruled during apartheid in South Africa, to reset himself in the United States.
The group that arrived on Monday at a US-funded Omni Air International Charter flight says they have been discriminated against, have refused opportunities for work and have been subject to violence because of their race. 49 Afrikaners boarded the flight on Sunday, according to a spokesperson for the airport authority of South Africa, after more than 8,000 people had shown interest in the program. There are few details available about the people who have arrived in the United States.
The South Africans who reached the United States on Monday had received accelerated processing by the Trump administration -no more than three months waiting. Refugees resettlement Before the first Trump government, an average of 18 to 24 months, according to the American Immigration Council, lasted an interest group for immigrants.
Mr. Trump said on Monday that the United States expanded citizenship to these persons, who, according to him, were the victims of a genocide.
“Farmers are killed,” he told reporters. “They happen to be white. Whether they are white or black makes no difference to me. White farmers are brutally killed and the country is confiscated in South Africa.”
Police data do not support the story of mass murder. From April 2020 to March 2024, 225 people were killed on farms in South Africa, according to the police. But most victims – 101 – were current or former employees who lived on farms, who are usually black. Fifty -three of the victims were farmers, who are usually white.
The refugee program has exacerbated tensions between the United States and South Africa, whose government has rejected the Trump government that the Afrikaners are eligible for refugee status.
“It is very regrettable that it seems that the resettlement of South Africans to the United States under the guise of ‘refugees’ is fully politically motivated and designed to question the constitutional democracy of South Africa,” said Chrispin Phiri, a spokesperson for the Ministry of South Africa, in a statement.
Stephen Miller, the deputy staff of the White House, who has supervised the immigration policy of the administration, said that the situation in South Africa “fits in with the definition of the textbook of why the refugee program was created.”
“This is prosecution based on a protected feature-in this case,” he said, “this is on race-based persecution.”
In February, Mr. Trump a manager signed about The suspension of all foreign aid to South Africa and announced that his administration would work to resett “Afrikaner -refugees” because of the actions of the South African government that did not promote “landowners”.
Mr. Trump referred to a law, known as the Expropriation lawAs a result of which in some cases the government is in public interest in the public interest without paying compensation. But that step can only be taken after a justification process subject to judicial assessment.
Ronald Lamola, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of South Africa, compared the law with an eminent domain in the United States. Analysts say that the law has many controls and balances to prevent abuse. The most likely application, analysts say, will be to take land that is not in use.
The Trump government also criticized the South African government for its conviction of Israel about the war in Gaza and its close relationship with Iran. South Africa has brought a genocide case against Israel to the International Court of Justice.
Hamed Aleziz And Aishvarya Kavi contributed reporting.
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