US to limit refugees to just 7,500 and prioritise Afrikaners

The Trump administration is going to restrict the number of refugees it admits into the US next year to just 7,500 - and those spots will mostly be filled by white South Africans.

- Maya Yang

The low number represents a dramatic drop after the US previously allowed in hundreds of thousands of people fleeing war and persecution from around the world.

The administration published the news yesterday in a notice on the Federal Registry. No reason was given for the big decrease from last year's ceiling set under the Biden administration of 125,000. The memo said only that the admission of the 7,500 refugees during the 2026 fiscal year was "justified by humanitarian concerns or is otherwise in the national interest".

The figure had been reported earlier after documents about the plans were leaked.

The announcement swiftly drew criticism. The International Refugee Assistance Project said: "This determination makes it painfully clear that the Trump administration values politics over protection."