First white South Africans arrive in US after being granted refugee status

The Star

The Trump administration on Monday (May 12) welcomed dozens of white South Africans it has granted refugee status in the US for being deemed victims of racial discrimination, a move that has drawn criticism from Democrats and stirred confusion in South Africa.  WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline

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00:00The first group of white South Africans granted refugee status has arrived in the U.S.

00:06Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau greeted them at Dulles Airport in Virginia on Monday.

00:12The president made it clear that Afrikaners in South Africa who were the victims of unjust racial discrimination

00:21would be welcome to come to the United States.

00:24President Donald Trump has blocked mostly non-white refugee admissions from the rest of the world,

00:30but in February offered to resettle Afrikaners, the descendants of mostly Dutch settlers.

00:36The move has drawn criticism from Democrats and stirred confusion in South Africa.

00:41Because they're being killed and we don't want to see people be killed.

00:45Trump made those comments on Monday when asked why South Africans were being prioritized.

00:51He did not provide evidence.

00:53But it's a genocide that's taking place that you people don't want to write about.

00:57But it's a terrible thing that's taking place and farmers are being killed.

01:03They happen to be white.

01:05South Africa maintains there is no evidence of persecution

01:08and that claims of a quote white genocide in the country have not been backed up by evidence.

01:14The once ruling white minority has retained most of its wealth amassed since colonial times

01:19and still own three-quarters of private land, with about 20 times the wealth of the black majority.

01:26That's according to International Academic Journal, the Review of Political Economy.

01:32But the claim that white South Africans face discrimination has become an established trope in right-wing online chat rooms,

01:39one that's been echoed by Trump's white South African-born ally, Elon Musk.

01:43A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said on Friday

01:48that more arrivals are expected in the coming months.

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