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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Rachel Savage in Johannesburg

‘I believed the hype’: the white South Africans denied refugee status in the US

United States Refugee South Africa Donald Trump USCIS WhatsApp
White Afrikaners in Pretoria holding US flags and a sign that reads: ‘Refuge please.’
More than 13,000 Afrikaners have moved to the US as refugees since the first group arrived in May 2025. Photograph: Kim Ludbrook/EPA-EFE

When Donald Trump announced in February 2025 that the US would accept Afrikaners from South Africa as refugees, many white South Africans who believed that they were victims of racism in their country thought that their prayers had been answered.

However, in the past few months, dozens of applicants to the refugee programme have been rejected, with many left dismayed and confused as to why they would be left to face what Trump has falsely claimed is a “white genocide” in South Africa.

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