Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. LAST week, news had it that a group of white Afrikaners from South Africa had been granted refugee status in the United States.
You read that right; descendants of Dutch colonisers, the very architects of apartheid, are now being welcomed as “refugees” by a country whose president, Donald Trump, is notorious for his hostility towards black and brown migrants.
This is not just another immigration story. It’s a damning reflection of how white supremacy cloaks itself in the language of humanitarianism when it suits Western interests.
At the heart of this farce is a trial programme quietly pushed by the Trump administration, targeting members of the Afrikaner community, people who continue to benefit from South Africa’s grossly unequal economic and land distribution.
Despite making up less than 10% of the population, white South Africans still control over 70% of arable land. They dominate much of the economy as well. Yet somehow, they are the ones being cast as victims.
The pretext? The 2024 Expropriation Act allows the South African government to reclaim land for the public interest, potentially without compensation. It’s a long-overdue piece of legislation in a country still reeling from the legacies of colonial theft. But to Trump and his circle of white South African allies, it was the perfect opportunity to fan the flames of racial paranoia and push a white supremacist agenda through the back door of US immigration policy.
Between 49 and 59 white Afrikaners were reportedly flown to the US, offered protection as “refugees”, despite facing no verifiable threat to their lives. The same administration that built walls, banned Muslims, caged migrant children and vilified black asylum seekers is now bending over backwards to resettle white people who still live in relative comfort compared to the vast majority of black South Africans.
This is not just hypocrisy. It’s a grotesque reminder of which lives the West deems worthy of protection.
Let’s not pretend this is new. During Zimbabwe’s chaotic land reform programme in the early 2000s, Britain rolled out the red carpet for white farmers with colonial ties. Tens of thousands secured British passports and moved abroad under the guise of persecution, while the majority black population, still dispossessed and struggling, was offered nothing.
Today, Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer is slamming the door on migrant labour under the hollow guise of protecting local jobs. Yet, the very foundations of the British economy, both past and present, were built on the backs of foreign hands.
These are not isolated incidents. They are part of a well-worn pattern in which Western nations weaponise immigration policy to preserve racial hierarchies, often under the banner of democracy and human rights. More precisely, they are the hallmarks of a rising tide of right-wing politics that cloaks xenophobia in the language of patriotism and security.
Look at the numbers. In 2023, Africans spent over €56 million on Schengen visa applications. Many were rejected, often arbitrarily. Meanwhile, Westerners face few, if any, restrictions entering African nations, where they are welcomed as investors, tourists or saviours.
The global mobility game is rigged, and it’s rigged against the black majority. This is not just a matter of who gets a visa or asylum; it’s about systemic bias at every stage of the migration journey. A 2021 study in the US revealed that black immigrants face disproportionately higher rates of detention and deportation compared to other immigrant populations, despite making up a smaller share of the total. The message is clear: not all migrants are treated equally and blackness continues to be criminalised, surveilled and excluded across borders.
And when it comes to refugee resettlement? The mask slips even further. Black refugees from war-torn African countries face endless bureaucratic hurdles, lack media attention and receive minimal support services. Yet when Europe faced a refugee crisis involving Ukrainians, white, Christian and geo-politically convenient, the doors flew open and funding followed.
What we are witnessing with the Afrikaner “refugees” is not a humanitarian gesture. It is racial favouritism disguised as asylum. It is an indictment of an international system that still operates on the logic of colonialism, where whiteness is equated with civility and deserving, while blackness is viewed with suspicion and exclusion.
Until refugee policies stop being colour-coded and visa regimes stop reinforcing apartheid logic on a global scale, the world cannot talk about justice. It cannot talk about equity. And it certainly cannot talk about humanity. The West owes Africa more than crumbs of moral convenience. It owes the truth and the courage to confront it.
In the end, the case of the Afrikaner “refugees” is not an isolated episode; it is a mirror held up to the West’s enduring moral rot. It exposes the selective empathy, racial double standards and colonial a hangover that still shape who gets to be called a refugee, who is protected and who is expendable. Until global policies value African lives as much as they do white ones, all talk of justice and racial equality remains hollow. This is not just about immigration; it’s about dismantling a global system that still bows to whiteness while turning its back on justice.
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