US diplomats asked if non-whites qualify for Trump refugee programme for South Africans
President Donald Trump's February executive order establishing the programme specified it was for 'Afrikaners in South Africa who are victims of unjust racial discrimination', referring to an ethnic group descended mostly from Dutch settlers.
In a diplomatic cable sent on July 8, embassy charge d'affairs David Greene asked whether the embassy could process claims from other minority groups claiming race-based discrimination such as coloured South Africans who speak Afrikaans.
The answer came back days later in an email from Spencer Chretien, the highest-ranking official in the state department's refugee and migration bureau, saying the programme is intended for white people.
Reuters was unable to independently verify the precise language in the email described to the news agency by three sources familiar with its contents.
The state department, responding to a request for comment on July 18, did not specifically comment on the email and the cable, but described the scope of the policy as wider than the guidance in Chretien's email.
The department said US policy is to consider Afrikaners and other racial minorities for resettlement, echoing guidance posted on its website in May saying applicants 'must be of Afrikaner ethnicity or be a member of a racial minority in South Africa'.
Chretien declined to comment through a state department spokesperson. Greene did not respond to Reuters requests for comment.
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