Trump administration slams church for refusing to resettle white South Africans in America
The church's presiding bishop was scathing in his criticism of the administration's decision to grant the white South Africans refugee status.
The first group of Afrikaners from South Africa to arrive for resettlement listen to remarks from US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau and US Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Troy Edgar. Picture: SAUL LOEB / AFP
The White House this week questioned the humanitarian commitment of the influential Episcopal Church after it refused to comply with a federal directive to help resettle white Afrikaners granted refugee status by the Trump administration.
Trump ran on an anti-immigrant platform and essentially halted refugee arrivals in the United States after taking office, but made an exception for white Afrikaners despite South Africa's insistence that they do not face persecution in their homeland.
On Monday, around 50 white South Africans arrived for resettlement in the United States, after Trump granted them refugee status as victims of what he called a 'genocide.'
That claim, oft-repeated by Trump's Pretoria-born ally Elon Musk, has been widely dismissed as absurd, including by the South African government.
On Monday, the Episcopal Church said it would end its refugee resettlement program with the US government rather than comply with orders to help resettle the white South Africans.
In a statement, White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly criticised the decision as raising 'serious questions about its (the Church's) supposed commitment to humanitarian aid.'
She claimed white Afrikaners, who are primarily descendants of European colonisers and whose ethnic group dominated South African politics until apartheid was abolished in 1994, had 'faced unspeakable horrors.'
ALSO READ: Afrikaner claims of persecution are a fat lie
Church says no taking in refugees
On Monday, the church said it would wind up its refugee resettlement grant agreements with the US federal government, amounting to more than $50 million (R910 million) annually, rather than comply with Trump's orders.
In a statement, the church's presiding bishop was scathing in his criticism of the administration's decision to grant the white South Africans refugee status.
'It has been painful to watch one group of refugees, selected in a highly unusual manner, receive preferential treatment over many others who have been waiting in refugee camps or dangerous conditions for years,' said Sean W. Rowe.
Under eligibility guidelines published by the US embassy, applicants for US resettlement must either be of Afrikaner ethnicity or belong to a racial minority in South Africa.
The Episcopal Church said that it could not comply with Trump's order 'in light of our church's steadfast commitment to racial justice and reconciliation.'
It said its programs with the US federal government would be wound up by the end of the fiscal year, but that its work on refugee resettlement would continue, including supporting recently arrived refugees from around the world.
© Agence France-Presse
NOW READ: Ramaphosa to meet Trump, says 49 Afrikaners headed to US are not 'refugees'
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