WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump increased the refugee admissions ceiling by 10,000 for this year to allow more white South Africans to come into the country, a signed presidential determination showed.

The document, dated May 21, said white South Africans of Afrikaner ethnicity face an emergency situation due to the “incitement of racially motivated violence” by the government and political parties in the majority-Black country. Trump, a Republican, froze refugee admissions from around the world when he took office in January 2025, but weeks later launched a program exclusively aimed at bringing in white South Africans.

The effort — which prioritised white refugees while shunning thousands of others from Africa, Asia and elsewhere — was part of a broader challenging of humanitarian norms around refugee protection. The Trump administration has admitted only three non-South African refugees this fiscal year, government figures show.

Trump initially set the refugee ceiling at a record-low 7,500 for fiscal year 2026, which ends on Sept 30. But his administration had already brought in 6,000 white South Africans through the end of April, government figures show.

Trump’s decision to increase the number of refugee admissions brings the total ceiling to 17,500.

Published in Dawn, May 27th, 2026