The United States on Thursday announced it was limiting the number of refugees it will accept annually to a record low of 7,500, with white South Africans being given priority.

The 7,500 refugees being accepted in the financial year 2025-’26 will be against the more than 100,000 persons accepted per year under President Donald Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden. The financial year in the US is from October to September.

The refugee admissions will primarily be allocated to white South Africans, or Afrikaners, and “other victims of illegal or unjust discrimination in their respective homelands”, according to a White House memo.

Trump, after assuming office for his second term in January, has effectively paused refugee admissions and tightened immigration regulations.

In some cases, the US government has used military aircraft to repatriate undocumented migrants, including Indians.

However, the administration made an exception for white South Africans to enter as refugees. The first group of about 50 white South Africans, who are descendants of the first European settlers there, arrived in the US in May.

This came amid diplomatic tensions between Washington and Pretoria.

Trump’s claims about persecution of white South Africans

In February, Washington suspended aid to South Africa, citing a South African law that Trump alleges allows land of white farmers to be seized.

On March 7, Trump repeated his allegations that Pretoria was “confiscating” land from white persons and said that South African farmers would be provided a “rapid pathway to citizenship” in the US.

A week later, Washington expelled the South African Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool, accusing him of being a “race-baiting politician who hates America” and the US president. The administration did not explain what had triggered the decision against Rasool.

The South African government has repeatedly insisted that white South Africans do not face persecution.

Land ownership is a contentious matter in South Africa. A significant portion of private farmland is still owned by white families more than three decades after the end of apartheid. Pretoria is under pressure to implement reforms.

Also read: Afrikaner ‘refugees’ are opportunists helping bolster Trump’s ‘white genocide’ claims

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