First Arrival Stories of South African Refugees in Dulles, MN: The First Press Conference on Their Refugee Status

The first group of White South African refugees arrived in the U.S. on Monday under President Trump’s executive order mandating they be prioritized for resettlement — even as the broader refugee program remains largely on hold.

But not all Afrikaners in South Africa are prosperous. And — like people across the racial spectrum — some have suffered from violent crime and attacks. It will likely be these stories that they tell on arrival at Dulles.

There would be food and items for the children once arrived, a document seen by NPR said. The office of the Catholic diocese of Virginia would offer assistance for refugees. After the press conference the families will depart for their end destinations in several states including Minnesota, Nevada, and Idaho.

Your case manager will pick you up at the airport and take you to housing that was arranged for you. It said that this housing could be temporary and that a local organization could help identify more long-term housing.

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You are expected to find a job quickly, according to the South Africans. Entry level employment is expected of adults in warehousing, manufacturing, and customer service. You can work toward higher level employment over time.”

However, the document stated that “Any credentials from your home country may not automatically transfer to the United States.” That last point will be of interest to many Afrikaner applicants — some of whom are farmers and have previously told NPR they hope to continue farming in the U.S.

One of the agencies assisting with resettlement is the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants. Fourteen Afrikaners received services in Idaho, Iowa and North Carolina.

There is no evidence that the South African government is taking land from Afrikaners. The South African government passed a land reform law earlier this year, which allows for the seizure of land in rare circumstances but no land has been seized. In fact, while whites in South Africa account for some 7 percent of the population, they still own about 70% of commercial farmland.

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“These people won’t be stopped from going, albeit under a false narrative,” the spokesman, Vincent Magwenya, told NPR. There isn’t any basis for the executive order to authorize this action. None of the provisions of international law on the definition of refugees are applicable in this case.”

And it’s not only the South African government that has expressed disagreement. Many black and white people in the country are shocked by the rightwing minority. NPR spoke to ordinary citizens who were concerned race relations were being set back, three decades after the end of the racist system of apartheid — an Afrikaner policy — when Nelson Mandela ushered in a multi-racial democracy.

Many South Africans have taken to social media to post memes and comedic videos, casting doubt on claims that whites who leave for the U.S. are persecuted, joking they will miss their “privileged lives, domestic workers, and beach holidays.”

“Across the country, refugee resettlement agencies have closed or cut staff, and for refugees about to fly to the U.S., their travel authorizations were cancelled, thousands are now stuck waiting and face growing danger,” Kenn Speicher, who founded NOVA Refugees, a support network in the DC-region, told NPR.

“We’ll continue to do our part regardless of country of origin,” Eskinder Negash, USCRI President and CEO, said in a statement to NPR. “We are hopeful that the arrival of this group of refugees indicates the government’s intention to restart the U.S. refugee program and help other refugees in need of resettlement services.”

To be eligible for resettlement consideration individuals must be of South African nationality, be of Afrikaner ethnicity or a member of a racial minority in the country, and must be able to articulate a past experience of persecution or fear of future persecution.

America will take action to protect victims of racial discrimination, in alignment with the administration’s America First foreign policy agenda, said Landau in a statement.

On Monday, the U.S. Embassy and Consulates in South Africa published a notice about the refugee admissions program for “for Afrikaners and disfavored minorities in South Africa who are victims of unjust racial discrimination,” indicating this cohort is the first of more to come.

“The U.S. Refugee Program has been a catastrophic failure,” he said of past administrations’ application of the program. He said that it was an example of the president returning the refugee program to what it was intended to do.

“What’s happening in South Africa fits the textbook definition of why the refugee program was created,” Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller told reporters last week. “This is persecution based on a protected characteristic, in this case, race. This is race-based persecution.”

Trump, his adviser, and the Secretary of State all say that Afrikaners face persecution in South Africa.

The presiding bishop of the church wrote that it was painful to watch one group of refugees being treated differently from others who have been waiting in refugee camps for years.

The Episcopal Church on Monday announced it would terminate its partnership with the government to resettle refugees, citing moral opposition to resettling white Afrikaners.

Refugees and the U.S. Military: a brief tribute to the late Michael Edgar and Christopher Landau at the Tevatron on Monday

“If refugees posed no challenge to our national security or could be easily integrated into our country, they would be allowed into the country,” he said.

When asked if the refugees program would be reopened, he said it was still an ongoing consideration.

Some Republicans have criticized the move of Afghans to work with the U.S. military. Judges have ordered the government to return refugees to the program, even though the administration is fighting the court order.

Families on Monday arrived at the airport with their luggage; children donned pajamas and carried small American flags and stuffed animals as their parents walked them through a private airplane hanger.

Troy Edgar, deputy Homeland Security secretary, and Christopher Landau, the deputy secretary of state, greeted the families, shaking hands and posing for photos.

Their admission has drawn scrutiny from agencies in the U.S., who’ve had their budgets slashed since Trump took office.