The Trump administration announced that the United States will cap refugee admissions at 7,500 over the next year, a sharp reduction from the 125,000 limit set under former President Joe Biden.
The notice stated that these limited slots would be “primarily” allocated to Afrikaner South Africans and to “other victims of illegal or unjust discrimination in their respective homelands.”
No detailed explanation was provided for the steep cut, though the administration said the decision was “justified by humanitarian concerns or is otherwise in the national interest.”
“White Genocide” Claims Dismissed as False
The U.S. president has continued to argue that white South Africans face persecution and discrimination as a result of the country’s land reform and redress policies.
However, South African officials have dismissed this assertion as “factually inaccurate.”
Government spokesperson Chrispin Phiri said, “The claim of a ‘white genocide’ in South Africa is widely discredited and unsupported by reliable evidence,” urging Washington and the international community to engage with South Africa’s challenges “with nuance and accuracy.”
Afrikaner Leaders Reject “Special Asylum”
Days ago, a group of prominent Afrikaners, including politicians, writers, activists, and business leaders, published an open letter rejecting the notion that Afrikaners needed to emigrate.
“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,” the group wrote.
Phiri added that any programme designed to resettle Afrikaners as refugees “disregards South Africa’s constitutional processes,” noting that the limited uptake of this offer by South Africans reflects this reality.
AfriForum and the Broader Security Context
Afrikaner lobby group AfriForum, which had been at the forefront of the claims earlier this year, later clarified that it does not describe farm murders as genocide, though it continues to raise concerns about safety in rural areas
AfriForum spokesperson Ernst van Zyl said, “This does not mean AfriForum rejects or scoffs at Mr Trump’s refugee status offer. There will be Afrikaners who apply, and they should have the option, especially those who have been victims of horrific farm attacks or the South African government’s many racially discriminatory policies.”
However, statistics from the Transvaal Agricultural Union of South Africa (TAU SA) indicate that farm murders average around 50 a year across all races, suggesting that such attacks form part of South Africa’s wider crime challenge rather than a targeted campaign against any specific group.
Diplomatic Rift Deepens Between South Africa and the U.S.
Relations between Pretoria and Washington have continued to deteriorate under the Trump administration, which has adopted an increasingly hard line toward South Africa.
The country’s economy remains sluggish, and while claims of a “white genocide” persist, analysts caution that South Africa’s challenges are far more complex than the rhetoric suggests.
Much of the tension stems from South Africa’s growing alignment with the BRICS bloc, a coalition seeking to reduce global dependence on the U.S. dollar.
In recent weeks, Pretoria has moved to strengthen diplomatic and economic ties with non-Western partners such as Turkey, in what observers see as an attempt to cushion the impact of U.S. pressure and shifting geopolitical dynamics.
Tensions peaked in May during a meeting at the Oval Office, where Trump reportedly confronted President Cyril Ramaphosa, claiming that white farmers in South Africa were being killed and “persecuted.”
While it remains unclear how many white South Africans have applied for refugee status in the U.S., the South African Chamber of Commerce in the United States confirmed that 59 Afrikaners were granted asylum and resettled in America in May.
