The South African government on Friday sharply criticised a controversial U.S. decision to prioritise white South Africans as refugees, calling the policy based on “widely discredited” claims of persecution.
The criticism came one day after the Trump administration announced it would slash its annual refugee quota to a record low of 7,500 people, with priority given to whites from South Africa’s Afrikaner community and “other victims of illegal or unjust discrimination in their respective homelands.”
The two nations have been locked in a diplomatic dispute for months over U.S. allegations that South Africa’s post-apartheid government persecutes its white minority population, including widely rejected claims of a “white genocide.”
South Africa’s foreign ministry dismissed Washington’s position as resting “on a premise that is factually inaccurate.”
“The claim of a ‘white genocide’ in South Africa is widely discredited and unsupported by reliable evidence,” the ministry said in an official statement.
The refugee program began in May when President Donald Trump first offered refugee status to Afrikaners, descendants of South Africa’s first European settlers. Since then, approximately 50 people were transported to the United States on a chartered flight, with others reportedly following in smaller numbers on commercial flights.
The South African ministry said the number of refugees was “limited” but provided no specific figures.
The government cited an open letter from dozens of Afrikaner community members rejecting the “narrative that portrays Afrikaners as victims of racist persecution.”
Officials characterised the conflation of voluntary migration with refugee asylum as a “serious mischaracterization” that undermines international systems designed to protect genuinely persecuted people.
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The refugee controversy represents the latest flashpoint in rapidly deteriorating U.S.-South Africa relations. In March, Washington expelled Pretoria’s ambassador, and in August imposed 30-percent tariffs on South African goods — the highest levied against any sub-Saharan African nation.
South Africa has been working to negotiate improved trade terms to prevent massive job losses in an economy already struggling with a 33% unemployment rate.
