First group of Afrikaner 'refugees' leave for US
As the US pushes full steam ahead to deport illegal migrants, eyeing some African countries as relocation destinations, it has at the same time controversially granted refugee status to white Afrikaners from South Africa, the first batch of whom departed yesterday, and are expected to be warmly welcomed in Washington, notes Legalbrief. The move has added to growing tension between the US and SA, and comes as thousands of other refugees fight against deportation moves. According to News24, the US Embassy earlier informed South Africa in a diplomatic note that the first batch of 49 members of the Afrikaner community would be admitted into the US, making good on its offer of ‘refugee status’ for those seeking to leave the country. South African Department of Transport spokesperson Collen Msibi confirmed that an application for a Sunday flight leaving OR Tambo airport in Johannesburg and destined for the US had been processed. ‘Based on the application that was lodged with the Department of Transport we took it to the International Air Services Council, the purpose was to transport Afrikaners who are relocating to the US as refugees,’ Msibi said. He said the application was approved, and a foreign operator permit was issued, with the condition that the passengers be vetted by the police or state security. The US Government is reportedly planning a welcoming event at Washington Dulles Airport in Virginia today, The New York Times reports. On 30 April, Robert F Kennedy Jr, US Secretary of Health & Human Services, approved a memorandum from the US Office of Refugee Resettlement to redirect funds from his department to pay for the resettlement of Afrikaners. City Press reports that the memorandum asks Kennedy for ‘mobilisation of immediate support for vulnerable incoming Afrikaner refugees’. This support includes ‘housing, health services and resettlement support upon their arrival’.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on 7 February, instructing his administration to prioritise the resettlement of ‘Afrikaner refugees’ in the US after accusing Pretoria of discriminating against landowners on the basis of race. This law follows dozens of government policies designed to dismantle equal opportunities in employment, education and business, as well as hateful rhetoric and government actions that promote excessive violence against racially disadvantaged landowners. The Sunday Times notes that the prioritisation of white Afrikaner refugees comes at the same time as Trump is trying to freeze all other refugee admissions to the US, including those for refugees fleeing violence and persecution in the DRC, Afghanistan and war-torn Sudan. However, a federal judge last Monday ordered that 12 000 refugees who had already made plans to travel to the US should be allowed into the country.
South Africa appears to have taken exception to the use of the term ‘refugee’ by the US to describe those who have taken up Trump's offer to resettle in the US. President Cyril Ramaphosa’s spokesperson, Vincent Magwenya, told the Sunday Times that the Trump administration's actions regarding SA’s domestic issues were unsettling. ‘Disturbingly, one has to admit that our sovereignty as a country is being grossly undermined and violated by the US,’ Magwenya said, adding that Ramaphosa was continuing to try to de-escalate diplomatic tensions between the two countries. This is the first time the SA Government has taken a hard line against the Trump administration, having previously opted for a diplomatic approach. Government last week pushed back against the reasons attached to the relocation of the disgruntled Afrikaners, saying the use of the term ‘refugee’ to describe them was politically motivated to further undermine the country’s sovereignty. International Relations spokesperson Chrispin Phiri said the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 protocol defined a refugee as someone with a ‘well-founded fear of persecution’ based on race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion. Phiri said Pretoria insisted that allegations the government was discriminating against the white Afrikaner community were unfounded. ‘The SA Police Service 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 SA to address concerns of discrimination,’ he said. ‘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.’ A senior government insider said ‘it is equally undeniable that the Trump administration has persistently violated every prescript of established normal diplomatic relations and courtesy’.
In the meantime, the US Government's reported plans to deport migrants to Libya has suffered a setback. A US judge has said any effort by the Trump administration to deport migrants to Libya would clearly violate a prior court order barring officials from swiftly deporting migrants to countries other than their own without first weighing whether they risk persecution or torture if sent there, reports TimesLIVE. US district judge Brian Murphy issued an order restricting their removal last Wednesday after Reuters, citing three US officials, reported on Tuesday that the Trump administration may for the first time deport migrants to Libya despite previous US condemnation of Libya's harsh treatment of detainees. Two of the officials said the US military could fly the migrants to the North African country as soon as Wednesday, but stressed that plans could change. Reuters could not determine how many migrants would be sent to Libya or the nationalities of those the administration was eyeing for deportation, including whether any were Libyan nationals. The relatives of one Mexican national told Reuters he had been instructed to sign a document allowing for his deportation to the African nation. Immigration rights advocates said in court filings that individuals potentially subject to deportation to Libya also included Filipino, Laotian and Vietnamese migrants. When asked about the planned deportations, President Donald Trump said he did not know whether they were happening. Libya's government of national unity said it rejected the use of Libyan territory as a destination for deporting migrants without its knowledge or consent. It also said there was no co-ordination with the US regarding the transfer of migrants.
The US has also set its sights on Rwanda for the deportation of migrants. Talks between the two countries are the latest move by the African country to position itself as a useful option for the anti-migration policies of allied governments, reports The Guardian. Previous high-profile attempts, however, including with the UK, Israel and Denmark, failed after becoming beset by controversy. Last week, the Rwandan Foreign Minister, Olivier Nduhungirehe, said the talks with Washington DC were in the early stages. Although details about the planned deal are scant, this is not the first time that Rwanda has explored such an arrangement for resettlement. In 2022, the country entered an agreement with the previous Tory UK Government to receive asylum seekers from Britain. Under the deal, asylum claims would be processed in Rwanda. Successful applicants would remain there, while unsuccessful ones would be given the option to leave Rwanda or receive residency. The deal, which cost the UK hundreds of millions of pounds, eventually fell through when Keir Starmer cancelled it after the Labour party came into power last year. Nduhungirehe acknowledged Rwanda’s previous experience with similar migration plans, saying the US idea was ‘not something new to us’. Rwanda was also previously involved in a programme between 2014 and 2017 to take African asylum seekers from Israel.
In 2017, Volker Türk, the assistant high commissioner for protection at the UN refugee agency, said 4 000 people from Eritrea and Sudan had been relocated under the 2014-17 programme to two African countries ‘named in media reports as Rwanda and Uganda’. The scheme collapsed when Israel’s Supreme Court suspended deportations in 2018, according to The Guardian. Rwanda has also explored a migration deal with Denmark. After the European country’s passage of a law to process asylum seekers outside Europe in 2021. Critics condemned it, saying Denmark was shifting responsibility for refugee protection. In 2023, the country paused the plan. Paul Kagame has in the past defended migration plans to send people to Rwanda. The latest talks with the US present an opportunity for the country to financially leverage the migrant crisis in the west as well as expand its geopolitical influence. Notably, the discussions are happening at a time when the US is pushing Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to enter bilateral economic agreements with the US that would bring western investment to support mining in the countries.