First white South Africans granted refugee status fly to US under Trump Programme

JOHANNESBURG — Under the flickering fluorescent lights of OR Tambo International Airport, a quiet procession of white South Africans pushed trolleys heavy with shrink-wrapped luggage. They were boarding a charter flight to the United States — the first group approved for asylum under a controversial Programme introduced during Donald Trump’s presidency.

The group of 49 individuals, mostly Afrikaners, had been cleared by South African authorities for departure after background checks, according to Transport Department spokesperson Collen Msibi. “One of the conditions of the permit was to ensure that they were vetted in case one of them has a criminal issue pending,” he said. The passengers, bound for Dulles Airport outside Washington, D.C., and onward to Texas, had boarded by Sunday night.

Journalists were not allowed to speak with the travellers directly. But campaigners behind the effort say the move is long overdue.

“I know many people won’t understand, but some white families here feel genuinely unsafe and overlooked,” said Katia Beeden, a life coach and activist based in Cape Town, who has helped organise the resettlement process. “They’ve lost livelihoods. They’ve been targeted for their skin colour. This programme gives them a chance to start over.”

Yet the initiative has ignited fierce debate in both countries.

In South Africa, where race remains an open wound three decades after the fall of apartheid, government officials have reacted with disbelief. “It’s a misreading of our country’s complexities,” one senior official in the foreign ministry, speaking on background, told The Times. “These are not people fleeing war or famine. They’re leaving a democratic country because they don’t like how it’s changing.”

White South Africans — just under 8% of the population — continue to hold the lion’s share of the country’s land and wealth. A 2024 study in the Review of Political Economy found they own more than 70% of private land and earn 20 times more, on average, than Black South Africans.

The Trump-era policy, which specifically invited Afrikaners to apply for refugee status, framed them as victims of “systemic discrimination.” It was a stance that ran counter to the broader trajectory of U.S. immigration policy under Trump, which sharply curtailed refugee admissions from majority non-white countries.

Critics argue it’s part of a larger ideological agenda.

“This isn’t about protecting the vulnerable,” said Professor Thabo Mbeki, a political analyst at the University of the Witwatersrand. “It’s about validating a myth — the idea that white people are now the ones under siege.”

That notion has long circulated in fringe right-wing spaces online, where false claims about white farmers being “killed in droves” have gained traction. The theory has been amplified by Elon Musk — himself born in South Africa — who has previously tweeted in support of white South Africans, drawing sharp rebuke at home.

To date, there’s no evidence of a systematic campaign against white citizens. The South African Human Rights Commission and international observers have found that, while crime affects all communities, there is no official bias targeting whites. Farm attacks, often cited by those seeking asylum, have affected both white and Black farmers — with the latter suffering the majority of land-related violence, according to Agri SA, the country’s leading agricultural body.

Still, those leaving insist they’re not driven by politics — but by fear and frustration.

One woman, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said her family’s farm in the Free State had been broken into three times in five years. “We don’t feel wanted anymore,” she said. “And when we try to speak up, we’re told to be quiet because of apartheid. But I was born in 1995.”

The departures have also raised questions about precedent. Will the United States now become a haven for politically vocal minorities from other democratic nations? And how will the Biden administration — which has rolled back many Trump-era immigration orders — handle the policy moving forward?

For now, those aboard Sunday’s flight are heading into the unknown. Some will resettle in Houston, others in rural parts of Texas where Afrikaner communities have quietly taken root.

“We just want peace,” said Beeden. “If that means starting from scratch in another country, so be it.”

As the plane finally lifted off into the Johannesburg night, it carried not just passengers — but a deep and unresolved debate over race, justice and who truly qualifies as a refugee.

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