49 Afrikaners Take Up Refugee Status Offer to Start Anew in the United States
On the 12th of May 2025, 49 Afrikaners from South Africa landed in the United States of America, ready to start their lives anew as refugees, a status and condition sanctioned by President Donald Trump as an executive order to address the falsified “genocide” of white farmers and the alleged Expropriation of Land without Compensation.
This development is yet another chapter in the escalating international tension between South Africa and the US stoked by Afriforum’s false claims of white persecution and targeted murders in the country, which has seen the latter also withdraw grants and health-oriented financial aid.
The eight-hour flight which departed from Oliver Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg ended its trip at the Dulles Airport in Virginia, where the cohort was courteously received by US Secretary General Christopher Landau. The flight logistics and the appendant costs were all sponsored by the US Government.
Of the group, several reports have captured that some of the “refugees”, which include men, women, and children, already have family in the United States, who would help them get on their feet, while those who will be starting from ground zero will be getting assistance from the government in the interim to cushion the shock of the transition.
While the Afrikaners phasing into the US have been successful at it, with them also being offered the chance to apply for formal US citizenship, back home, the doors seem to have been slammed shut. The Department of International Relations (DIRCO), through Minister Ronald Lamola and spokesperson Chrispin Phiri, has doubled down on the lack of the validity of the refugee status taken up by the Afrikaners, as offered by the Trump Administration. Phiri stated that this move will make it near impossible for those that departed for the land of the free and home of the brave to come back for “a braai” and then go back.
“You can’t be seeking refuge and then all of a sudden decide let me go back home, have a braai, then go back to x country where you are safer. It defeats the purpose of you being protected and under refuge of a particular country,” said Phiri in an interview with eNCA.
This is a developing story.