White South Africans arrive in the United States after the Trump administration grant refugee status

A plane that transported dozens of White South Africans arrived on Monday at Dulles International Airport, said a state department official, after the Trump administration granted them the status of refugee in the United States.

The group, which includes families with children, was received at the airport of the DC area by US officials, including Undersecretary of State Christopher Landau and the deputy secretary of National Security Troy Edgar. Landau told journalists that the group has faced an “atrocious discrimination” in South Africa, that the country’s government has denied.

Landau said the newcomers were “carefully examined” in South Africa before arrival. They left Johannesburg through a charter plane on Sunday.

Earl this year, President Trump directed his government To allow European ancestry South Africans, particularly Afrikaners, who descend largely from Dutch settlers, to be resettled through the United States refugee program.

The administration and its allies, including the billionaire born in South Africa Elon Musk, allege that the members of the White minority of South Africa have faced discrimination by the government after the apartheid of the country, even through a controversial law that allows the government to take private land in some circumstances.

“South Africa is confiscating land and treating certain kinds of people very badly,” Trump wrote about Truth Social in February.

The South African government has strongly denied any discrimination, and argues that the law of land seizure respects private property rights and only addresses the land that is not used or does not serve the public interest. The property of the Earth has long been a delicate issue in South Africa, which was governed by its white minority under the apartheid system until the mid -1990s.

“It is ironic that the executive order provides for refugee status in the United States for a group in South Africa that remains among the most economically privileged people, while vulnerable people in the United States from other parts of the world are being deported and denied asylum despite real difficulties,” the Ministry of International Relations of South Africa said in a February statement.

Landau also cited attacks on South African farmers in recent years, saying that newcomers have faced “atrocious and specific threats.” The South African government argues that attacks in the country’s rural agricultural communities are not racially directed and are part of the broader crimes problem in South Africa.

The Trump administration has also faced the South African government about foreign policy, including its criticisms to Israel. Trump signed an executive order in February ordering his government to stop South Africa.

The South Africans moved through the refugee process In an unusually fast clip, arriving in the United States after a few months, despite the fact that the process often takes years.

They also arrived in the United States despite a broader effort of the Trump administration to suspend the refugee admission program, a measure that has attracted judicial challenges.

The refugee group refuses to help reassure South Africans

The federal government is generally based on non -profit organizations to help reassure refugees in the United States, but at least one group, the episcopal migration ministries, said Monday that it will not help with South African arrivals.

Episcopal Bishop Sean Rowe said the Government informed the group, which receives federal subsidies, which would be expected to help South Africans. The group opted against assistance and instead will end its work with the government, he said, citing the “firm commitment of the group with racial justice and reconciliation.”

“It has been painful to see a group of refugees, selected in a very unusual way, receive a preferential treatment about many others who have been waiting in refugee fields or in dangerous conditions for years,” Rowe said in a statement.

Some other refugee resettlement groups have indicated that they are willing to work with South Africans.

The CEO of the world church service, Rick Santos, criticized the Government for restricting most of the other refugee admissions, but said that the group “remains committed to attending to all eligible refugee populations that seek security in the United States, including Afrikaners that are eligible for services”, in a statement to News.

In:
• South Africa