How white South Africans became the face of Trump’s refugee policy

In the last year, the US has admitted just 13,000 refugees — a fraction of the number it has accepted in previous years. And almost all of those new arrivals have been white South Africans.

The Trump administration says Afrikaners are fleeing persecution in South Africa. But there is little evidence of attacks specifically targeting the country’s white Afrikaner minority. South Africa’s new ambassador to the US has told the BBC that the idea of a mass attack against white Afrikaners simply does not exist.

So why have Afrikaners been given preferential access to the US refugee programme? And what has life in America been like for those who have made the journey?

Today on The Global Story, the BBC’s North America correspondent Ione Wells and Africa producer Ed Habershon share their conversations with the Afrikaners who are using new refugee policies to immigrate to the US — and the South African officials who say the Trump administration is overlooking the full picture.

Producer: Cat Farnsworth, Aron Keller and Xandra Ellin

Executive producer: Martine Powers

Mix: Travis Evans

Digital producer: Charlie Firth

Senior news editor: China Collins

Photo:US President Donald Trump meets with South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, USA, 21 May 2025. Credit: Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA/Shutterstock