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Trump is bringing white South Africans to the US as refugees, but what persecution are they facing?

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) The Trump administration is bringing a small number of white South Africans to the United States as refugees next week
in what it says is the start of a larger relocation effort for a minority
group who are being persecuted by their Black-led government because of
their race.

The South Africans applications are being fast-tracked by the U. S. after President Donald Trump announced the relocation program in February.

The Trump administration has taken an anti-migrant stance, suspending
refugee programs and halting arrivals from other parts of the world,
including Iraq, Afghanistan and most countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

Refugee groups have questioned why some white South Africans are being prioritized.
South Africa says theres no persecution

The South African government said the U. S. allegations that the white
minority Afrikaners in question are being persecuted are completely false,
the result of misinformation and an inaccurate view of its country. It
cited the fact that Afrikaners are among the richest and most successful
people in the country, and said they are amongst the most economically privileged.

Afrikaners are the descendants of mainly Dutch and French colonial settlers
who first came to South Africa in the 17th century. There are around 2.7 million Afrikaners among South Africas population of 62 million, which is
more than 80% Black. Many in South Africa are puzzled by claims that
Afrikaners are persecuted and meet the requirements to be refugees.

Afrikaners are part of South Africas everyday multi-racial life: many are successful business leaders and some serve in government as Cabinet
ministers and deputy ministers. Their language is widely spoken including
by non-Afrikaners and is recognized as an official language, and churches
and other institutions reflecting Afrikaner culture hold prominence in
almost every city and town.

So what persecution is the U. S. alleging?
Farm attacks

Trump and his South African-born adviser Elon Musk have accused the South African government of having racist anti-white laws and policies, but the claims of persecution center on a relatively small number of violent farm attacks and robberies on white people in rural communities.

The U. S. alleges those attacks are racially motivated and the South
African government is fueling them by allowing anti-white rhetoric from
some political parties not in government and not doing enough to protect
rural Afrikaner communities. The government strongly denies that and has condemned the farm attacks, but says their cause is being deliberately mischaracterized.

Violent attacks on farm owners in South Africa have been a problem for
years but represent a small percentage of the countrys extremely high
violent crime rates, which affect all races. The government says there is
no targeting of white people in South Africa and no persecution, and farm attacks are part of its struggles with violent crime.

An Afrikaner group called AfriForum records farm attacks and said there
were 49 farm homicides in South Africa in 2023. Those are set against a
total of more than 20,000 homicides in South Africa a year. Experts say
rural communities are susceptible to crime because of their remoteness and
less police presence, but Black farm owners and workers are also killed in violent robberies.

Still, many rural white communities have long expressed fear at the threat
of violence and feel authorities are not doing enough to protect them.
Those claims appear to be part of the requirements to claim refugee status
in the U. S. , although no details of the application process have been announced.
Affirmative action and reverse racism

The Trump administration has also criticized South Africas affirmative
action policies as racist against whites and has falsely claimed white
South Africans are having their land taken away by the government under a
new expropriation law that promotes racially discriminatory property confiscation. No land has been expropriated, but Afrikaners who make up
many rural communities have raised fears that their land might be targeted.

South Africa does have laws designed to advance employment opportunities
for Blacks, and many white South Africans and white-led political parties
have also criticized them and called them racist and counter-productive.

Some Afrikaner groups say the employment, land and other laws are designed
to limit their opportunities in South Africa.

Afrikaners were at the heart of South Africas previous apartheid system of white minority rule and there is a sentiment among some that they and their culture are being targeted in a kind of reverse racism by the Black-led government as punishment for that. The government denies that.
Not the only whites in South Africa

Afrikaners make up just some of South Africas approximately 4.5 million
white people, which also include those who have British and other heritage.

But the Trump administrations refugee program only offers relocation to Afrikaners, who are largely seen as holding conservative and Christian
values that might align with the politics of the Trump administration.

Its not clear how many Afrikaners have applied for or been granted refugee status, but a U. S. -based South African business group has said it had a
list of tens of thousands who had expressed interest.

U. S. officials and a document obtained by The Associated Press said a
first group of more than two dozen Afrikaners from around four families
will arrive Monday at Dulles International Airport outside Washington.

___

Associated Press writer Michelle Gumede in Johannesburg contributed to this report.

___

More news on South Africa: https: //apnews. com/hub/south-africa

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