Trump just brought a group of white South Africans to the U.S. as refugees. What are they escaping?

The Trump administration brought a small number of white South Africans to the United States as refugees Monday. It says it’s the start of a larger relocation effort for members of the minority Afrikaner group who are being persecuted by their Black-led government because of their race.

The 59 South Africans had their applications fast-tracked by the U.S. after President Donald Trump announced the relocation program in February. He said Monday that white Afrikaner farmers are facing a “genocide” in their homeland, an allegation strongly denied by the South African government.

The Trump administration has taken an anti-migrant stance, suspending refugee programs and halting arrivals from other parts of the world, including Iraq, Afghanistan and most countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

Refugee groups have questioned why the white South Africans are being prioritized.

South Africa says there’s no persecution

The South African government said the U.S. allegations that Afrikaners are being persecuted are “completely false,” the result of misinformation and an inaccurate view of its country. It cited the fact that Afrikaners are among the richest and most successful people in the country, and said they are amongst “the most economically privileged.”

Afrikaners are the descendants of mainly Dutch and French colonial settlers who first came to South Africa in the 17th century. There are around 2.7 million Afrikaners among South Africa’s population of 62 million, which is more than 80% Black. Many in South Africa are puzzled by claims that they are persecuted.

Afrikaners are South Africa’s largest white group and part of the country’s everyday multi-racial life. Many are successful business leaders and some serve in government. Their language, Afrikaans, is widely spoken — including by non-Afrikaners — and is recognized as an official language, and churches and other institutions reflecting Afrikaner culture hold prominence in almost every city and town.

Afrikaners were the leaders of the apartheid system of white minority rule that ended in 1994.

So what persecution is the U.S. alleging?

Farm attacks

Trump and his South African-born adviser Elon Musk have accused the South African government of having racist anti-white laws and policies, but the claims of persecution and genocide center on a relatively small number of violent farm attacks and robberies on white people in rural communities.

The U.S. alleges those attacks are racially motivated and the South African government is “fueling” them by allowing anti-white rhetoric in politics and not doing enough to protect Afrikaner communities. The government has condemned the farm attacks, but says their cause is being deliberately mischaracterized.

Violent attacks on farm owners in South Africa have been a problem for years but represent a small percentage of the country’s extremely high violent crime rates, which affect all races. The government says there is no targeting of white people and farm attacks are part of its struggles with crime.

Groups representing farmers have recorded around 50 or less farm homicides a year in the last two years in South Africa. Those figures are set against a total of more than 20,000 homicides a year affecting all races.

“There is no data at all that backs that there is persecution of white South Africans or white Afrikaners in particular,” South African Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola said. “White farmers get affected by crime just like any other South Africans.”

Still, many rural white communities have long expressed fear at the threat of violence and feel attacks against them in home invasions and robberies are especially brutal.

“So, we’ve essentially extended citizenship to those people … to escape from that violence and come here,” Trump said.

Affirmative action and ‘reverse racism’

The Trump administration has also criticized South Africa’s affirmative action policies as racist against whites and has falsely claimed white South Africans are having their land taken away by the government under a new expropriation law that promotes “racially discriminatory property confiscation.”

No land has been expropriated, but Afrikaners who make up many rural communities have raised fears their land might be targeted.

South Africa has laws designed to advance employment opportunities for Blacks, and many white South Africans and white-led political parties have also criticized them and called them racist and counter-productive.

Some Afrikaner groups say the employment, land and other laws are designed to specifically limit their opportunities in South Africa in a kind of reverse racism as punishment for Afrikaners’ role in apartheid. The government rejects that and says the laws are designed to give Blacks access to jobs and land they were denied under apartheid.

Not the only racial minority in South Africa

Afrikaners are not the only racial minority in South Africa, and not the only white minority. South Africa also has nearly 2 million white people with British or other heritage.

The Trump administration’s program initially only referred to Afrikaners. But in new guidelines released by the U.S. Embassy on Monday, applicants for refugee status must be “of Afrikaner ethnicity or be a member of a racial minority in South Africa.” Other racial minorities include a group of around 5 million with biracial heritage, as well as people with Indian and other south Asian heritage.

It’s not clear how many South Africans have applied for or been granted refugee status, but U.S. State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said the administration would welcome more Afrikaners as refugees in the coming months.

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Associated Press writers Michelle Gumede and Mogomotsi Magome in Johannesburg contributed to this report.