FIRST ON FOX: The United States is set to welcome 49 white South African refugees who are victims of "government-sponsored racial discrimination" in their homeland, according to the State Department.
The U.S.-chartered flight touched down at Dulles Airport in Virginia on Monday afternoon, when Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau welcomed the group of Afrikaners.
"Faced with undeniable government-sponsored racial discrimination in South Africa, the first Afrikaner refugees have arrived in the United States," a senior State Department official said in an exclusive statement to Fox News Digital.
"The U.S. Refugee Admissions Program was intended for situations like this. Under President Trump's strong leadership, the State Department has helped to provide a new life for these refugees in America, where they will live in freedom, safety, and opportunity."
TRUMP TO BRING WHITE AFRIKANERS TO US AS REFUGEES FROM SOUTH AFRICA, IN WAKE OF EXPROPRIATION LEGISLATION
President Donald Trump first initiated their resettlement with an executive order entitled, "Addressing Egregious Actions of the Republic of South Africa," directing the State Department to bump up Afrikaners to the front of the line for resettlement.
South Africans are now able to submit a statement of interest with the U.S. embassy in Pretoria, which will review the documents and contact those who are eligible for the interview process.
Trump has virtually halted the refugee program for those from war- and famine-ravaged nations like Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. White South Africans say they have been denied jobs and targeted for violence on account of their race.
Trump's executive order came in response to a law passed by the South African government allowing it to take private land for public use, sometimes without compensation. Trump claimed the law would be used to target South Africa's White minority Afrikaner group, descended from Dutch and other European settlers who arrived more than 300 years ago.
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The South African foreign ministry said claims that White South Africans faced a "well-founded fear of persecution" were "unfounded."
"It is most regrettable that it appears that the resettlement of South Africans to the United States under the guise of being 'refugees' is entirely politically motivated and designed to question South Africa's constitutional democracy; a country which has in fact suffered true persecution under Apartheid rule and has worked tirelessly to prevent such levels of discrimination from ever occurring again," spokesperson Chrispin Phiri at the Ministry of International Relations and Cooperation added.
The Afrikaners' arrival comes as Trump tries to push back on the racial politics of South Africa, where adviser Elon Musk grew up during apartheid.
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The Afrikaner families traveling to the U.S. are largely from farming communities.
Since apartheid ended in the 1990s, South Africa has sought to atone for segregationist policies, including with the land redistribution law signed in January. The policy came after a 2017 audit found that White South Africans owned three-quarters of individually-owned farms and agricultural property, while making up 7% of the population. Black South Africans had been denied the right to own prime agricultural land during the apartheid era.
