[Image: Needpix]
The Trump administration is planning to turn office space in Pretoria into temporary refugee centres while it processes the nearly 8200 applications received by Afrikaners wanting to help make America great again.
The plan is being touted under the “Mission South Africa” programme, which was established to assist those seeking refuge in the US.
According to reports, the program has already identified 100 Afrikaners who could be approved for refugee status.
According to a memo sent from the US Embassy in Pretoria to the State Department in Washington earlier this month, US officials stationed in South Africa are expected to present long-term strategies aimed at “ensuring the effective implementation of the president’s vision for the dignified resettlement of eligible Afrikaner applicants by mid-April”.
While the welcome mat is being rolled out to the Afrikaner refugees, the US has barred approximately 20,000 other refugee seekers from countries such as Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Syria.
Friction between the US and South Africa appears to be growing after certain groups have campaigned the Trump administration to get involved in saving them from what they see as post-apartheid prosecution of minority white Afrikaners. This, along with cutting USAID and kicking Ebrahim Rasool out of the US, has only increased the tension and given voice to more ‘extreme’ claims.
Trump noted several reasons, including the recently signed Expropriation Act by President Cyril Ramaphosa, as an attack on the white minority, particularly farmers. This is despite everyone, including our very own president, emphasising that nobody is going to be kicked off their land.
It may be the 1st of April, but this doesn’t seem to be a joke, despite how laughable the idea of refugee centres for Afrikaners in a Pretoria office block may seem.
Trump does, however, seem good at convincing people they are victims and only the US can help them. But there is always a price to pay for America’s help – potential Boere refugees would do well to remember that.
[Source: IOL]
