‘I believed the hype’: the white South Africans denied refugee status in the US

When Donald Trump announced in February 2025 that the US would accept Afrikaners from South Africa as refugees, many white South Africans who believed that they were victims of racism in their country thought that their prayers had been answered.However, in the past few months, dozens of applicants to the refugee programme have been rejected, with many left dismayed and confused as to why they would be left to face what Trump has falsely claimed is a “white genocide” in South Africa.After Trump’s February 2025 executive order announcing the resettlement programme, which was expanded to include members of a “racial minority”, the first group of 68 white South Africans arrived in the US that May. The US also shut down the refugee programme for anyone else fleeing war and persecution.Since then, more than 13,000 have moved to the US, according to state department figures. Arrivals are also accelerating, with more than 2,600 admitted in August.Afrikaners, descended from Dutch and French settlers, ruled South Africa during apartheid. The regime repressed the black majority, while keeping white people safe and wealthy.Since the end of apartheid more than 30 years ago, affirmative action policies have helped to create a black elite and middle class. But about 38% of black South Africans are unemployed, compared with 9% of white South Africans, according to official data.The first group of Afrikaners arrived in the US under Trump’s refugee programme in early May 2025. Photograph: Chip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesMeanwhile, the “black economic empowerment” policies, along with high crime rates that affect everyone, have fostered a feeling among some white South Africans that they are now the victims of racial discrimination.The racist far right has also long highlighted brutal murders of white South African farmers, claiming them as evidence of white people being targeted. Official crime data does not show farmers or white people experiencing crime at higher rates. That has not stopped Trump amplifying these claims, in the face of the South African government’s furious rebuttals.On 30 June, Facebook and WhatsApp groups for prospective and successful refugee applicants began to light up with news that people had begun to receive rejection letters.“We are writing to inform you that, following review, USCIS [US Citizenship and Immigration Services] found your application to be ineligible for continued processing for resettlement to the United States at this time. This cannot be appealed,” the letters said, according to multiple rejections seen by the Guardian.It is unclear how many have been found ineligible. USCIS did not provide data on the total number of refugee applications and rejections. One WhatsApp group set up to support rejects, called Hope beyond the Letter, had 311 members as of 10 September, according to one of the administrators, who noted that the membership fluctuated.While the ineligibility letters did not give reasons for rejection, some applicants were given more information after making Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. The WhatsApp group administrator, a 64-year-old freelance TV professional, who did not want his identity disclosed, found that his case was initially “recommended for approval”. However, the recommendation was reversed because his ex-girlfriend, whom he had applied with, had a marijuana conviction.“I cried like a baby,” he said, of receiving the rejection letter on 30 June, having finished the screening process in November. “It was something I actually believed was attainable. I believed the hype.”During a meeting on 21 May 2025, Donald Trump ambushed his South African counterpart, Cyril Ramaphosa, with printed-out news articles about a ‘white genocide’ in his country. Photograph: Jim Lo Scalzo/EPAPieter and Liesl (not their real names) were told they were “conditionally approved” as refugees Last November. Both are Afrikaners who had a grandparent killed on a farm and were managing a farm when they applied to become refugees.Pieter said he was convicted of trespassing in 2014, for which he said he paid a fine and did not go to court. He was granted multiple temporary visas to work on farms in the US between 2011 and 2024.The couple’s youngest daughter was born in the US and is a US citizen. In the response to their FoI request, they noticed that USCIS had recorded her nationality as South African and incorrectly said that she would be left behind if they moved to the US as refugees.They had already sold their house, car and many of their possessions when they received a rejection letter on 24 July. “We have to start all over again,” Pieter said.Another applicant blamed not being able to speak in his native Afrikaans for what he claimed were misunderstandings that led to him and his wife being rejected. The reasons given in response to their FoI request were “crime involving moral turpitude” and “commission of acts of torture or extra judicial killing”.The 67-year-old had admitted to shooting at least one black person when working as a security guard in 1995, but said it was in self-defence while responding to the mass break-in of an alcohol shop. “I was thoroughly investigated by the authorities,” he said. “I was not charged, because I did not break the law.”In an emailed response that did not address specific cases, the USCIS spokesperson Zach Kahler said: “The Department of Homeland Security is committed to resettling Afrikaner refugees who are being persecuted by the South African government.“[USCIS] reviews each refugee application on a case-by-case basis … [and] notifies aliens found ineligible for continued processing through the US Refugee Admissions Program, including those found ineligible for public safety concerns or criminal histories. This cannot be appealed. This administration will always prioritize the safety and welfare of the American people.”