A privately chartered plane on Sunday, carried 49 white South Africans out of the country as they began a new chapter in the United States, having been granted refugee status through a program introduced by the Trump administration in February.
Although white South Africans account for only about 7% of the country’s population, they continue to hold a disproportionately large share of the wealth, owning approximately 78% of private farmland and possessing nearly 20 times the wealth of their Black counterparts.
In a move that has sparked widespread debate, U.S. President Donald Trump has signed an executive order granting asylum to a group of white South Africans, specifically Afrikaners, who claim to be victims of racial discrimination in post-apartheid South Africa.
On Sunday, the first group of Afrikaners benefiting from this directive boarded a U.S.-funded charter flight out of Johannesburg.
A Reuters journalist reported witnessing a line of white South Africans at the airport, their trolleys stacked with luggage, awaiting passport control before heading to the departure lounge.
According to Collen Msibi, spokesperson for South Africa’s Transport Ministry, the chartered flight carried 49 individuals.
“The application for the permit [to land] said it’s the Afrikaners who are relocating to the USA as refugees,” he said.
Afrikaners, primarily descendants of Dutch, German, and French settlers, held political power during South Africa’s apartheid era, a period marked by systemic racial segregation and the violent suppression of Black citizens.
Despite the end of apartheid nearly three decades ago, Afrikaners remain economically privileged in South Africa.
The plane’s route included a stop at Dulles Airport near Washington, D.C., before continuing to Texas. U.S. broadcaster NPR reported that 12 American states had agreed to receive the refugees, some of whom have relatives already residing in the country.
President Trump, reportedly influenced by South African-born entrepreneur Elon Musk, has voiced concern about what he sees as the marginalization of white South Africans by the Black majority.
He issued the executive order in early February, offering resettlement to “Afrikaner refugees” who face “government-sponsored race-based discrimination, including racially discriminatory property confiscation.”
This policy references South Africa’s controversial land expropriation initiative aimed at correcting historical injustices related to land ownership.
So far, the U.S. State Department has logged around 8,000 inquiries from white South Africans about resettlement.
The Trump administration estimates that up to 1,000 Afrikaners may be relocated to the U.S. by year’s end.
However, Msibi noted, “his department hadn’t received any other application for further resettlement flights.”
The expedited process available to Afrikaners stands in sharp contrast to the standard refugee admission system, which typically takes years.
Ironically, this development comes as the Trump administration has halted nearly all other refugee entries under an earlier executive order.
