First white S Africans board plane for US under Trump refugee plan

WASHINGTON: The first white South Africans granted refugee status under a programme initiated by US President Donald Trump boarded a plane to leave from the country’s main international airport in Johannesburg on Sunday.

A queue of white citizens with airport trolleys full of luggage, much of it wrapped in theft-proof cellophane, waited to have their passports stamped, a Reuters reporter saw, before they entered the departure lounge for their charter flight.

“One of the conditions of the permit was to ensure that they were vetted in case one of them has a criminal issue pending,” South African transport department spokesperson Collen Msibi told Reuters, adding that 49 passengers had been cleared.

Journalists were not granted access to those headed to the US. Msibi said they were due to fly to Dulles Airport just outside Washington, DC, and then on to Texas. They had boarded the plane but not yet left as of 8:30 pm. (1830 GMT).

Trump’s offer of asylum to white South Africans, especially Afrikaners - the group with the longest history in South Africa and who make up the bulk of whites - has been divisive in both countries.