Will US welcome other whites?

No clarity on what is exactly meant by 'disfavoured minorities'.

- Marizka Coetzer

Is the United States asylum door open to people other than ethnic Afrikaners who consider themselves oppressed by the ANC government?

Mixed messages from US representatives in South Africa have only added to the confusion. In his original executive order, US President Donald Trump referred to ethnic Afrikaners as being welcomed as refugees in a state-facilitated programme.

The US Mission in South Africa said: "US department of state is coordinating with the department of homeland security to promote and prioritise humanitarian relief, including consideration of eligibility for admission and resettlement to the United States for Afrikaners in South Africa who are victims of unjust racial discrimination."

However, a fact sheet issued this week by the US embassy and consulates in South Africa did not limit the executive order's ramifications to ethnic Afrikaners.

"As encapsulated in its recent land confiscation Act to seize disfavoured citizens' property without compensation, the government of South Africa blatantly discriminates against ethnic minority descendants of settler groups," the sheet says.

"As long as South Africa continues to support bad actors on the world stage and allows violent attacks on innocent disfavoured minority farmers, the United States will stop aid and assistance to the country.

"The United States will establish a plan to resettle disfavoured minorities in South Africa discriminated against because of their race as refugees."