United States (US) President Donald Trump has increased the refugee admissions ceiling by 10 000 for \u200cthis year to allow more White South Africans (SA) to come into the country, a signed presidential determination reviewed by Reuters showed.<\/p>\n
The document, dated May 21, said white South Africans of Afrikaner ethnicity face an emergency due to the \u201cincitement of racially motivated violence\u201d by the government and political parties in the majority-Black \u200bcountry.<\/p>\n
Trump, a Republican, froze refugee admissions from around the world when he took office in January 2025, but weeks later \u200blaunched a program exclusively aimed at bringing in white South Africans.<\/p>\n
The effort which prioritised white refugees \u2060while shunning thousands of others from Africa, Asia and elsewhere was part of a broader challenging of humanitarian norms around refugee protection.<\/p>\n
The Trump administration \u200bhas admitted only three non-South African refugees this fiscal year, government figures show.<\/p>\n
SA Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Chrispin \u200bPhiri, in response to a Reuters request for comment, rejected the assertion that European-descended Afrikaners face danger and discrimination.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe assertion that white Afrikaners, in particular, endure systemic persecution is entirely without foundation,\u201d Phiri told Reuters in a statement.<\/p>\n
The White House document did not list specific examples of South Africa\u2019s government allegedly inciting \u200bracial violence.<\/p>\n
A State Department Spokesperson declined to confirm the 10 000-person increase to the refugee cap but said the program was a Trump \u200bpriority and that the president would determine refugee levels.<\/p>\n
Trump initially set the refugee ceiling at a record-low 7 500 for fiscal year 2026, which ends on \u200cSeptember \u206030. But his administration had already brought in 6 000 white SA by the end of April, government figures show.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s decision to increase the number of refugee admissions brings the total ceiling to 17 500.<\/p>\n
Reuters first reported the planned refugee program expansion in April.<\/p>\n
The Trump administration is expected to deploy US public health officers to Kenya to help staff a potential quarantine facility for Americans in the region.<\/p>\n
\u2014Reuters\u2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":27049,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-35609","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"The Trump administration \u200bhas admitted only three non-South African refugees this fiscal year, government figures show.","published_date":"","news_description":"The Trump administration \u200bhas admitted only three non-South African refugees this fiscal year, government figures show.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/35609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/35609\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35611,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/35609\/revisions\/35611"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=35609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}