Cold welcome for Afrikaner 'refugees' in US

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With the group of 49 so-called Afrikaner “refugees” having landed in the United States on Monday, having left South Africa on Sunday, it seems there’s an American corner of the internet that is not chuffed with their new lodgers.

As news of the Afrikaners landing at Dulles International Airport near Washington DC hit Bluesky, some ostensibly American users expressed frustration with their new neighbours, and some of the commentary was brutal.

Rick Ashby, username @chuluota.bsky.social‬, went straight for the jugular, saying the Afrikaner “refugees” were “white descendants of the implementers of Apartheid”.

They are white descendants of the implementers of apartheid. That is all trump needs to know….

— Rick Ashby (@chuluota.bsky.social) 13 May 2025 at 06:39

Ashby was commenting on a report where President Cyril Ramaphosa said the US government was misinformed about the status of the Afrikaners in South Africa.

“It’s a fringe grouping that does not have enough support, that is anti-transformation and anti-change, that would actually prefer South Africa to go back to Apartheid-type policies,” Ramaphosa said of the “refugees” on Monday from Abidjan, Ivory Coast.

Should Afrikaner ‘refugees’ in US ‘just go back to the Netherlands’?

Another Bluesky user, Ayse Adams (@ayacaylpso.bsky.social‬) weighed into Dutch colonial history and asked: “Why don’t they just go back to the Netherlands? Isn’t that where the white South Africans originally came from?

Why don’t they just go back to the Netherlands? Isn’t that where the White South Africans originally came from?

— Ayse Adams (@ayacaylpso.bsky.social) 12 May 2025 at 06:44

Adams was responding to an article that detailed what the Afrikaner “refugees” could expect in their American goodie bags, such as free groceries and cellphones.

Some Bluesky patrons were perplexed that these 49 Afrikaners could claim persecution when a number of white Afrikaners were Cabinet ministers in South Africa.

Refugees who literally have their own government ministers in power.

— Obstrepero (@bockdr.bsky.social) 12 May 2025 at 21:36

John Steenhuisen is the minister of agriculture and Pieter Groenewald is the minister of correctional services, among other Afrikaners in the Ramaphosa’s government of national unity.

Another social media user, @therealjohnwoke.bsky.social, ‬leaned into the double-standard exhibited by US immigration officials, through their ill-treatment of migrants from the global south.

Really?

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— John Woke™ (@therealjohnwoke.bsky.social) 13 May 2025 at 11:56

See more reactions from Bluesky users

“He [US President Donald Trump] is kicking out the people of colour and replacing them with white people,” posted MalcontentMaji, while Tim Andreasen – username ‪@timandreasen.bsky.social‬ – expressed a more nuanced observation.

“Gotta hand it to Trump: he knows how to pander to racists. Reframing Afrikaners as a persecuted underclass needing asylum (while denying asylum to Venezuelans): I don’t think even the [Ku Klux] Klan could have thought of that one. Heil Trump,” Andreasen posted.

Gotta hand it to Trump: he knows how to pander to racists. Reframing Afrikaaners as a persecuted underclass needing asylum (while denying asylum to Venezuelans): I don’t think even the Klan could have thought of that one. Heil Trump

— Tim Andreasen (@timandreasen.bsky.social) 12 May 2025 at 20:39