JOHANNESBURG—A plane carrying the first group of white Afrikaners to be resettled in the United States as refugees per an executive order issued by U.S. President Donald Trump touched down in Washington on May 12.
South African officials confirmed to The Epoch Times that a private jet chartered by the U.S. government carrying 49 Afrikaners left O.R. Tambo International Airport near Johannesburg late on Sunday.
Some of the asylum seekers said they felt they had no choice but to leave South Africa, citing high unemployment and crime rates and an environment they said makes white people feel as if they don’t belong.
The U.S. president wrote that his government would promote the resettlement of “Afrikaner refugees escaping government-sponsored, race-based discrimination, including racially discriminatory property confiscation” in South Africa.
Pretoria has implemented affirmative action and black economic empowerment policies that favor black citizens for employment but has denied seizing land belonging to white residents.
It argues that certain laws are necessary to create a more equal society following decades of white minority apartheid rule.
South Africans of all races are enduring some of the highest rates of violent crime in the world, with a spotlight often shone on the brutal murders of white farmers.
Sam Busa, a South African businessperson who has established the “Amerikaners” agency to support those she calls “disenfranchised South Africans seeking a new future in the U.S.,” told The Epoch Times: “I am relieved that these Afrikaners are going to build new lives in a safe country that values freedom. The South African government is using racist laws to oppress minorities. I thank President Trump and his entire administration for their care and concern, and for their courage because they are facing great criticism for providing assistance to South African minorities.”
Alvin Botes, South Africa’s deputy minister of international relations and cooperation, said his government would not block any citizen from leaving the country, even though it disagrees with their reasons for emigrating.
“As people who lived through apartheid, we know what racism looks and feels like,” he told The Epoch Times. “Although we disagree fundamentally with the allegations leveled against us, we won’t stand in the way of anyone who exercises their democratic right to legally emigrate.”
Vincent Magwenya, spokesperson for South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, told The Epoch Times: “What’s happening here is very disturbing. The United States is undermining and violating South Africa’s sovereignty.”
The statement followed news that the Trump administration had approved the applications of dozens of Afrikaners for relocation to the United States as refugees.
Trump’s executive order also referred to “hateful rhetoric and government actions fueling disproportionate violence against racially disfavored landowners.”
His adviser South African-born billionaire Elon Musk, has condemned what he calls the push for “genocide of white people” in the country.
The DIRCO statement said South Africa Police Services statistics on farm-related crimes “do not support allegations of violent crime targeted at farmers generally or any particular race.”
“There are sufficient structures available within South Africa to address concerns of discrimination. Moreover, even if there are allegations of discrimination, it is our view that these do not meet the threshold of persecution required under domestic and international refugee law,” it said.
Ernst Roets, of Afrikaner rights organization Afriforum, told The Epoch Times: “It is not as if Mr. Trump is throwing America’s doors open to a million Afrikaners. From what I have heard, the United States government is being very selective in terms of who it is accepting as refugees from South Africa.”
Shortly before she boarded the jet bound for the U.S. capital, Kirsten van Deventer, 48, told reporters: “I have to feed my children. I can’t find a job. I have applied for jobs, but the companies reject me as soon as they find out I am white. I have no choice but to leave, even though I am afraid, because I don’t know much about America.”
Meisie van Tonder said she and her family aren’t happy in South Africa.
“The government makes us feel as if white people do not belong,” she said.
On Friday, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller told journalists that Sunday evening’s flight will be the first in a “much larger-scale relocation effort.”
He said the treatment of Afrikaners in South Africa “fits the textbook definition of why the refugee program was created.”
“This is persecution based on a protected characteristic—in this case, race. This is race-based persecution,” he said.
DIRCO said allegations that the South African government is discriminating against Afrikaners are “unfounded.”
Part of its statement read: “It is most regrettable that it appears that the resettlement of South Africans to the United States under the guise of being ‘refugees’ is entirely politically motivated and designed to question South Africa’s constitutional democracy; a country which has in fact suffered true persecution under apartheid rule and has worked tirelessly to prevent such levels of discrimination from ever occurring again, including through the entrenchment of rights in our Constitution, which is enforced vigorously through our judicial system.”
Botes said he had spoken with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau on Friday about the “Afrikaner issue.”
“It was a very respectful, cordial discussion,” he said. “We agreed to speak more in the near future because we are at a point of disagreement here.”
