Peter Dutton set to review cases for immigration of white South African farmers

White South African farmers are not ‘too far off’ receiving immigration status, according to the Home Affairs Minister.

South African Farmer Rally In Forest Place Perth Western Australia on Sunday 8th April. Picture: Sean Middleton

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton says applications from white South African farmers wanting to move to Australia are underway, and he doesn’t think it will be “too far off” before he is able to offer immigration places to them.

Mr Dutton controversially suggested the farmers should be fast-tracked under Australia’s humanitarian refugee program, following widespread reports of violent attacks and murders of white South African landholders.

The comments enraged the South African government, which last month accused Australia of “tarnishing” the country’s reputation after Canberra refused to change its Smartraveller advice warning tourists visiting South Africa to exercise a “high degree of caution”.

Mr Dutton said his department had received a number of applications from white South Africans wanting to migrate to Australia.

“I will review many of those cases and look individually at the circumstances around those cases and as we’ve said before we think there is certainly a necessity to act and to provide that support to people who are in trouble, who face persecution, and I’m not going to step back from that position,” he told Daily Telegraph columnist Miranda Devine.

“I believe that we should look at the circumstances and if people are able to find a safe haven in Australia and we can provide that support then we should. That’s the approach that I’m taking.”

Asked how soon he expected applications to be approved, Mr Dutton said: “I don’t think we’re too far off properly considering some of those cases.”

“You’d need to look at the allegations people have made and it may mean we need to verify some of that information, as you would expect, so we can do that through our resources in country and we can look at the network and intelligence, et cetera that we’ve got to verify people’s accounts, so there’s a bit of time involved in going through and checking the bonafides of individual cases, because we want to make sure we’re bringing the right people, the most deserving people, and we’ll do that, but I don’t think it’ll be too far off in terms of the first places that we’re able to offer,” Mr Dutton said.