WeeklySA_AdminTREK: A new US government plan aims to process up to 4 500 white South African refugee applications a month — a target that could exceed Washington’s overall refugee intake limits and deepen tensions with Pretoria…
By Reuters
The United States plans to process up to 4 500 refugee applications per month from white South Africans, according to US State Department documents, in a move that could exceed the country’s stated refugee admissions targets and further strain diplomatic relations with Pretoria.
According to Reuters, the White House has directed officials to accelerate admissions under a special refugee programme for Afrikaners, with new processing facilities being established on US embassy property in Pretoria to handle the anticipated volume of applications.
The plan is outlined in a State Department contracting document dated January 27, which indicates that Washington views the initiative as a presidential priority, despite an overall refugee admissions cap of 7 500 people worldwide for the 2026 fiscal year.
The document states that the United States aims to process thousands of applications monthly, even as refugee admissions from other regions have been sharply reduced. Modular buildings and temporary processing facilities are being installed at the embassy site to support the expanded operation.
South Africa’s government has rejected US claims that white South Africans face systematic persecution, but officials say they will not interfere with the programme provided it complies with local laws.
Trump has said the US would only admit 7 500 total refugees from around the world in fiscal year 2026, while a much higher cap of 40 000 to 60 000 was discussed internally last year. Only 2 000 white South Africans had entered the US as refugees as of January 31 under a program launched in May 2025, although the pace has picked up in recent months.
The ambitious target could also face administrative delays in Washington, which in recent weeks have halted all refugee travel to the US, including white South Africans, according to a US official familiar with the matter. The US State Department and Department of Homeland Security did not respond to requests for comment. The White House referred questions to the State Department.
The South African Chamber of Commerce in the U.S. said last year that more than 67,000 people had expressed interest in relocating.
Trump ordered a halt to refugee admissions into the US after taking office in 2025 as part of his crackdown on legal and illegal immigration. But weeks later, he launched an effort to bring in white South Africans of Afrikaner ethnicity as refugees, saying they had been violently persecuted in the majority-Black country. South Africa’s government has rejected that claim, while some refugee advocates have criticized the Trump policy.
US sees urgent need
The contracting document, posted to a US government database on Wednesday, explains the rationale for awarding the contract for the trailers without a competitive bidding process, stressing an urgent need for a secure site.
An immigration raid by South African authorities on a previous U.S. refugee processing site on a commercial property in Johannesburg had forced the government to consider a more secure location, it said, after “operations were compromised.”
“The inability to safely process about 4 500 applicants per month, an objective communicated to (the US State Department’s refugee division) from the White House, would result in failure to meet a Presidential priority,” the document said.
South African Foreign Ministry spokesperson Chrispin Phiri said his government would not interfere with the US programme if it remained within legal boundaries, while reiterating Pretoria’s rejection of Trump’s claims about white South Africans.
“The assertion that Afrikaners face systemic persecution is fundamentally unsubstantiated,” he said.
Whether the US could reach the ambitious 4 500 per month target remains unclear. The State Department last week cancelled all refugee travel – including for South Africans – from February 23 to March 9 due to operational factors, an email sent to applicants said. Because of Trump’s sweeping refugee ban issued in January 2025, South Africans must be admitted as exceptions on a case-by-case basis by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
The US official, who requested anonymity to discuss internal operations, said DHS had delayed the approvals, creating an administrative backlog.
Prior to the pause on admissions, South African entries had been ramping up, with about 1 500 admitted in December and January, compared with about 500 in the previous six and a half months, according to US State Department figures.
US-SA private agreement
Tensions between the US and South Africa over the refugee effort boiled over in mid-December when South African authorities raided the commercial building in Johannesburg where US staff and contractors were working on refugee cases.
Seven Kenyans working as contractors for a US-based refugee group were arrested for alleged violations of their visa terms, while two U.S. refugee officers were briefly detained.
US and South African officials reached an agreement during a closed-door meeting in late December to allow processing to continue, Reuters reported last month.
The contracting document said a South African company had received a no-bid $772,000 contract to supply and install 14 prefabricated modular buildings as part of a “temporary modular village” on an embassy property in Pretoria.
In a WhatsApp group for South Africans to share information about the program, one applicant said they had an interview this week in a trailer-like structure at an embassy property and that more trailers were being prepared, suggesting the site was now operational. Source: Reuters/Club of Mozambique
