Episcopal Church refuses to help Afrikaner refugees resettle in US
A group of 49 Afrikaners, including children, left South Africa on Sunday, 11 May, and landed in the US on Monday, 12 May. This, after US President Donald Trump signed an executive order granting white farmers asylum, saying they are being persecuted, and the South African government is confiscating their land and farms without compensation.
In a letter to church members, Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Reverend Sean Rowe said it has been painful to watch one group of refugees selected in a highly unusual manner receive preferential treatment over many others who have been waiting in refugee camps or dangerous conditions for years.
Rowe said since January, the U.S. Admissions Refugee Program has essentially shut down. No new refugees have arrived, and staff in various resettlement agencies have been laid off. Surprisingly, two weeks ago, the government informed Episcopal Migration Ministries that in terms of their federal grant, they have to resettle white Afrikaners from South Africa, whom the government has classified as refugees.
'In light of our church's steadfast commitment to racial justice and reconciliation and our historic ties with the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, we are not able to take this step. Accordingly, we have determined that by the end of the federal fiscal year, we will conclude our refugee settlement grant agreements with the U.S. federal government,' he explained.
Rowe said he also grieves victims of religious persecution, including Christians who have not been granted refuge in recent months.
'As Christians, we must be guided not by political vagaries, but by the sure and certain knowledge that the kingdom of God is revealed to us in the struggles of those on the margins. Jesus says we should love and care for Christians and the poor as we would for him, and we must follow that command.
'Right now, what that means is ending our participation in the federal government's refugee resettlement program and investing our resources in serving migrants in other ways,' Rowe said in the letter.
Meanwhile, President Cyril Ramaphosa revealed that he had a telephonic conversation with Trump to dispel the lies he had been told by people opposed to transformation in South Africa.
'I added to him that we were well taught by Nelson Mandela and other iconic leaders like Oliver Tambo on how to continue to build a united nation out of the diverse groupings that we have in South Africa. We are the only country on the continent where the colonisers came to stay, and we have never driven them out of our country.
'So, they're staying and they're making good progress. 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. I said to him [Trump] that I would never do that, I stand at the feet of Nelson Mandela, and we intend to proceed with the implementation of our Constitutional architecture,' he said.
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