A U.S.-funded charter plane carrying dozens of white South Africans who claim to have been victims of discrimination in their home country left Johannesburg on Sunday, heading for the United States, where the Trump administration is welcoming them as refugees.
The departure of the white South Africans, who say they have been denied jobs and have been targeted by violence because of their race, was a remarkable development in President Trump’s redefining of U.S. foreign policy.
Mr. Trump has halted virtually all refugee admissions for people fleeing famine and war from places like Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. But he has created an expedited path into the country for Afrikaners, a white ethnic minority that created and led the brutal apartheid regime in South Africa.
The refugee process often takes years. But only three months have passed from the time Mr. Trump signed an executive order establishing refugee status for Afrikaners to the first cohort making its way to America.
Families lining up to check in for the flight on Sunday evening at O.R. Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg waved off questions from reporters, saying that the U.S. Embassy instructed them not to speak with the news media. Parents, with children in tow, pushed trolleys piled high with luggage, and spoke quietly among themselves.
Families lining up to check in for the flight pushed trolleys piled high with luggage.Credit…Ilan Godfrey for The New York Times
