First group of white South Africans arrive in US for resettlement

DULLES, United States: A group of around 50 white South Africans arrived on Monday for resettlement in the United States after President Donald Trump granted them refugee status as victims of what he called a “genocide.”

Trump essentially halted refugee arrivals after taking office, but is making an exception for the white South Africans despite Pretoria´s insistence that they do not face persecution in their homeland.

“Welcome to the land of the free,” Deputy Secretary of State Chris Landau said as he greeted the Afrikaners, who are mainly descendants of Dutch settlers, at Dulles Airport in Virginia following their flight from Johannesburg.

Many of the new arrivals, including young children, were seen at the airport holding small American flags. Speaking at the White House shortly before the group´s arrival, the president said they were fleeing a “terrible situation” back home.

Trump, whose tycoon ally Elon Musk was born in South Africa, said white farmers were being killed in the country and repeated an allegation of “genocide” that has been widely dismissed as absurd.

“It´s a terrible situation taking place,” he said. “So we´ve essentially extended citizenship to those people to escape from that violence and come here.” Those being resettled just “happen to be white, but whether they´re white or black makes no difference to me,” Trump added.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa dismissed claims Afrikaners were being persecuted and said he recently told Trump that what he is being told about their situation “is not true.” “A refugee is someone who has to leave their country out of fear of political persecution, religious persecution, or economic persecution,” Ramaphosa said. “And they don´t fit that bill.”

“We´re the only country on the continent where the colonizers came to stay and we have never driven them out of our country,” he added at a forum in Abidjan.