The US regime has announced it will increase the number of white South Africans admitted as refugees this year from approximately 7,500 to 17,500, claiming that 'unforeseen developments in South Africa created an emergency refugee situation.'

Since beginning his second term, Donald Trump has repeatedly made false claims that white Afrikaners face racial targeting and 'white genocide,' which the South African government has furiously rebutted. The regime also cut aid to South Africa, boycotted the G20 summit in Johannesburg, and disinvited South Africa from this year's G20, to be held at a Trump resort in Miami.

The US regime began admitting white South Africans as refugees in May 2025, while suspending refugee resettlement for people fleeing war and persecution from countries including Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Sudan. In the last full fiscal year before Trump took office (ending September 2024), the US admitted over 100,000 refugees.

On Monday, the State Department sent Congress an emergency notice stating it would take up to 17,500 Afrikaners as refugees in the year ending September. In October, the regime had said it would admit just 7,500 refugees total, mainly white South Africans. The cost of resettling an additional 10,000 white South Africans is estimated at about $100 million, according to the Associated Press.

The State Department claimed the South African government's rhetoric 'across multiple ministries and political parties has sought to undermine the US resettlement program and attacked Afrikaners.' It also cited a December raid by South African authorities on a US refugee processing center, which the US regime called 'unacceptable.' South Africa defended the action, stating it deported seven Kenyans working illegally without permits.

'This escalating hostility heightens the risks to Afrikaners in South Africa, who are already subject to far-reaching government-sponsored race-based discrimination,' the notice said.

Afrikaners, descendants of Dutch and French settlers, ruled South Africa during apartheid, repressing the black majority. Post-apartheid affirmative action policies helped create a black elite and middle class, but the country remains deeply unequal. Official data shows 12% of white South Africans are unemployed, compared to 48% of black South Africans.

Nonetheless, 'black economic empowerment' policies and high crime rates have fostered a perception among some white South Africans that they are victims of racial discrimination. The 'white genocide' conspiracy theory, long a staple of the racist far right, has been amplified by South Africa-born billionaire Elon Musk and right-wing media personality Tucker Carlson.

Source: www.theguardian.com