FIRST AFRIKANER REFUGEES ARRIVE IN US
The first 49 South Africans who have been granted refugee status by US President Donald Trump have arrived on US soil.
The plane, filled with optimistic Afrikaners hoping for a new future in the US, departed from Johannesburg’s OR Tambo International Airport on Sunday night. They were headed to Dulles Airport just outside of Washington, D.C. whereafter they were headed to Texas.
The queue could be seen from far away, but journalists weren’t granted access to the refugees. When journalists approached them, they said they’ve been instructed by the U.S Embassy not to communicate with any journalists while they were waiting to board their US chartered flight.
When President Trump came into power in January, he made it clear that his administration views the way white Afrikaners are treated in South Africa as unfair and discriminatory.
A wide freeze on refugees has been implemented in the US, but Trump said he’ll prioritise these “victims of unjust racial discrimination” to resettle in the US.
The South African government has publicly criticised the movement, saying the US government has meddled where it wasn’t invited.
Locally, some people have become worried that there might be more Afrikaners leaving and what effect this could have on the South African economy.
Image credit: Middle East Eye