JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — The U.S. government has officially granted 54 Afrikaans South Africans, white descendants of mainly Dutch colonizers, refugee status and they are expected to land in the U.S. on Monday May 12, three sources with knowledge of the matter have told NPR. The sources did not want to be named because they work for the U.S. government and fear for their careers.
U.S. authorities on Thursday were trying to arrange a charter flight that would bring the South Africans to Dulles Airport near Washington, D.C., on Monday morning, but it's not clear if they will be allowed to land there. If that is not possible then they will be sent on commercial flights, according to the sources.
NPR has also seen an email confirming the plan, and that the new arrivals will then be sent on to their final destinations in various states across the country.
They are the first group of Afrikaners to be accepted by the U.S. after President Trump signed an executive order in February offering them possible resettlement.
"The Secretary of State and the Secretary of Homeland Security shall take appropriate steps, consistent with law, to prioritize humanitarian relief, including admission and resettlement through the United States Refugee Admissions Program, for Afrikaners in South Africa who are victims of unjust racial discrimination," the order, signed Feb. 7, said. It also cut aid to South Africa.
The sources said a press conference was planned for the group's arrival at Dulles airport, which would be attended by high level officials from the Departments of State and Homeland Security.
States that have agreed to take in the South Africans include: Colorado, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Washington, West Virgina, California, Idaho, Montana, North Carolina, Nevada, and New York, one source said. Several of the people granted refugee status have family ties in the U.S., they said.
The source noted it is unusual for refugees to be welcomed at the airport by U.S. dignitaries, and said the process of interviewing them in South Africa and granting them refugee status has been unusually quick.
The Afrikaners have been given P1 refugee status. According to the State Department website this is given to "individual cases referred by designated entities to the program by virtue of their circumstances and apparent need for resettlement."
The South Africans will now have a pathway to U.S. citizenship and be eligible for government benefits.
One source told NPR the UN's International Organization for Migration had refused to be involved in the process. A spokesperson for the IOM did not immediately reply to request for comment.
President Trump, his South African-born adviser Elon Musk, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, have all been vocal about what they claim is the persecution Afrikaners — many of whom are farmers — face in South Africa.
Trump has accused the South African government of "doing some terrible things" and said "they are confiscating land, and actually they're doing things that are perhaps far worse than that."
The South African government passed a new land reform bill earlier this year, but so far no land has been confiscated and the government says a clause allowing for "expropriation without compensation" would be used only in rare instances.
South Africa's Department of International Relations has also hit back against Trump's allegations that Afrikaners are discriminated against.
"It is ironic that the executive order makes provision for refugee status in the U.S. for a group in South Africa that remains amongst the most economically privileged, while vulnerable people in the U.S. from other parts of the world are being deported and denied asylum despite real hardship," the department said in a February statement.
On his first day back in office, Trump ordered the realignment of the "refugees admissions program," effectively suspending it, explaining: "The United States lacks the ability to absorb large numbers of migrants, and in particular, refugees, into its communities in a manner that does not compromise the availability of resources for Americans, that protects their safety and security."
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