(NewsNation) — While President Donald Trump has effectively halted all other U.S. refugee programs, he is bringing white South Africans to the U.S. as refugees.
Pauline Bax, African program deputy director for the International Crisis Group, joined NewsNation to explain why the refugee label is not accurate.
“Maybe they will have more economic opportunities than they think they have here in South Africa, but the idea that they will be refugees is completely false,” she said.
The White House has claimed that white South Africans are facing persecution in the country, something Bax says is inaccurate.
“There is no persecution. The fact of the matter is that South Africa had an apartheid system where people who were white dominated politics, they dominated the economy, and even low-skilled white people, mostly Afrikans, who didn’t have many prospects, could easily get a state job,” Bax said. “The situation has now changed completely.”
South Africa’s transition to democracy ended apartheid, but Bax said white Afrikaner people are still among the most successful people in the country, owning large companies and most of the land.
The government has enacted a law that makes it possible to take back land that isn’t being developed or isn’t being used in an equitable way, but no land has been expropriated so far despite claims that white people have had their land stolen.
“It’s just not true,” Bax said.
