Exclusive: US diplomats asked if non-whites qualify for Trump refugee program for South Africans

Source: Reuters

July 25, 2025 2:56 PM EDT Updated 3 hours ago


WASHINGTON, July 25 (Reuters) - In early July, the top official at the U.S. embassy in South Africa reached out to Washington asking for clarification on a contentious U.S. policy: could non-whites apply for a refugee program geared toward white South Africans if they met other requirements?

President Donald Trump's February executive order establishing the program specified that it was for "Afrikaners in South Africa who are victims of unjust racial discrimination," referring to an ethnic group descended mostly from Dutch settlers.

In a diplomatic cable sent July 8, embassy Charge d’Affairs David Greene asked whether the embassy could process claims from other minority groups claiming race-based discrimination such as "coloured" South Africans who speak Afrikaans. In South Africa the term coloured refers to mixed-raced people, a classification created by the apartheid regime still in use today.

The answer came back days later in an email from Spencer Chretien, the highest-ranking official in the State Department's refugee and migration bureau, saying the program is intended for white people. Reuters was unable to independently verify the precise language in the email which was described to the news agency by three sources familiar with its contents.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/us-diplomats-asked-if-non-whites-qualify-trump-refugee-program-south-africans-2025-07-25/