The first group White South Africans Officials said those granted refugee status by the United States will fly out of Johannesburg on Sunday.
Flights from Johannesburg or Tambo Airport will refuel around 2 a.m. to Dhaka (DAKAR) and then fly to Washington, D.C. The group consists of 49 South Africans, mainly composed of families, and several young partners in their twenties and older people.
"The application for a login permit (login) indicates that it was the Dutch who moved to the United States," South African Ministry of Transport spokesman Collen Missibi told AFP.
The plane - a US rental plane - will arrive at Dulles International Airport in Washington around 6 a.m. Monday before flying to Texas.
Missippi said his department has not received any other application for further flight placement.
according to Government documents obtained by CBS News last week. Sources familiar with the work told CBS News that the timing of the program could change.
In February, President Trump released Executive Order Officials were instructed to use the American refugee program to resettle the Afrikaans, a South African ethnic group composed of descendants of European colonists.
Mr. Trump at the time claimed that white South Africans faced “racial-based discrimination based on government.” He cited a law that American conservatives like South African-born Elon Musk allow racially motivated seizures to land owned by white South Africans. The land acquisition law aims to correct the inequality that was based on the previous apartheid system.
The South African government strongly denies land confiscation or racially motivated discrimination.
Hurry-arranged initiatives welcome South Africans in stark contrast to Trump administration's move to ban most other refugees from entering the United States
The processing of refugee status by the Dutch in South Africa is also extremely rapid. The State Department said before Trump’s second term that the refugee process takes an average of 18 to 24 months to complete due to background checks, medical screening and other interviews. The Afrikaans preparing to travel to the United States have gone through this process for months or even weeks.
Meanwhile, relations between South Africa and the United States have been struggling on a series of domestic and foreign policy issues this year, ultimately leading to Washington's expulsion of the Pretoria ambassador in March.
Mr. Trump said in March that despite stopping all other refugees immediately after taking office in January, any South African farmer seeking to "escape" would have a "quick way" to U.S. citizenship.
The South African Foreign Ministry said on Friday that “under the guise of ‘refugees’, the relocation of the Dutch in South Africa is entirely politically motivated and aims to question South Africa’s constitutional democracy”.
However, it will “not stop citizens seeking to leave the country.”
The U.S. Embassy in Pretoria, South Africa, has been interviewing those who applied for resettlement to the United States under Mr. Trump's directive to welcome the Afrikaans and continue to be questioned, the State Department said in a statement.
The department added: “While we cannot comment on individual cases, the State Department is prioritizing the resettlement of Afrikaans in South Africa by U.S. refugees.
Whites in South Africa, who make up 7.3% of the population, usually enjoy a higher standard of living than the majority of blacks in the country.
The government, mainly led by the Dutch, implemented a brutal racial segregation system that denied black South Africans, accounting for 75% of political and economic rights. The country allowed equal votes in 1994, resulting in Nelson Mandela's election as the first black prime minister.