‘Genocide’: Lie behind Trump’s white refugee claim

US President Donald Trump has been accused of attempting to rewrite history in his latest controversial move.

Donald Trump has enraged South African leaders after saying white farmers were facing “genocide” as the US welcomed about 50 Afrikaner refugees on Monday local time.

The US granted refugee status to the group after deeming them victims of racial discrimination, despite Mr Trump essentially halting all arrivals of other refugees after taking office.

“Welcome to the land of the free,” Deputy Secretary of State Chris Landau said as he greeted the South Africans, several of whom were waving small American flags, at Dulles Airport in Virginia following their flight from Johannesburg.

The group landed at Dulles in Northern Virginia early on Monday afternoon. Picture: CHIP SOMODEVILLA/Getty Images via AFP

“We’re sending a clear message that the United States really rejects the egregious persecution of people on the basis of race in South Africa.”

At a press conference on Monday local time, Mr Trump was questioned about why he was making an exception for the Afrikaners, who are the descendants of mostly Dutch settlers.

The families will be resettled by local refugee organisations across ten different states. Picture: CHIP SOMODEVILLA/ Getty Images via AFP

“It’s a genocide that’s taking place, that you people don’t want to write about,” Mr Trump told reporters on Monday local time.

“It’s a terrible thing that’s taking place and farmers are being killed.

“They happen to be white, but whether they are white or black makes no difference to me.”

Mr Trump added that white farmers were being “brutally killed” and their land was being “confiscated by South Africa”.

“If it were the other way around, they would talk about it,” Mr Trump said.

The “genocide” line has also been used by Mr Trump’s ally Elon Musk, who was born to a wealthy family in Pretoria, South Africa.

Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau welcomes a group of South Africans, also called Afrikaners, who accepted an invitation from the Trump Administration to come to the United States as refugees. Picture: CHIP SOMODEVILLA /Getty Images via AFP

In January, the South African land redistribution law was signed to correct an imbalance in property ownership in the nation.

The imbalance came as a result of a race-based apartheid system that denied black people political and economic rights until it was voted out in 1994.

Whites, who make up 7.3 per cent of the population, own two-thirds of farmland and on average earn three times as much as black South Africans.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa dismissed claims Afrikaners were being persecuted and said he recently told Mr Trump what he is being told about their situation “is not true”.

South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa. Picture: Issouf SANOGO / AFP

“A refugee is someone who has to leave their country out of fear of political persecution, religious persecution, or economic persecution,” Ramaphosa said.

“And they don’t fit that bill.”

“We’re the only country on the continent where the colonisers came to stay and we have never driven them out of our country.”

South African Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola also scoffed at claims that white Afrikaners face persecution or are being targeted for murder.

Most victims of killings in South Africa are young black men in urban areas, according to official data.

“The crime that we have in South Africa affects everyone irrespective of race and gender,” Lamola said.

“They can’t provide any proof of any persecution because there’s not any.”

– with AFP

Originally published as ‘Genocide’: Lie behind Trump’s white refugee claim