Some of the SA applicants have taken part in a first round of interviews in Pretoria, three of them told Reuters, describing positive encounters with US officials who seemed well disposed towards them and their accounts of persecution.

More than 30 applicants have already been approved, according to a person familiar with the matter.

"The staff at the embassy were exceptionally friendly," said Mark, a SA farmer who did not wish his family name to be published as the process is confidential. "I could feel they had empathy."

The US administration and embassy in Pretoria declined to comment or give numbers of interviews and approvals.

US President Donald Trump issued a February 7 executive order that called for the US to resettle Afrikaner refugees. It said Afrikaners, who are descendants of mostly Dutch early settlers, were "victims of unjust racial discrimination".

The order came after Trump had suspended all US refugee admissions, citing security and cost concerns. Thousands of Afghans, Congolese and others fleeing conflict were blocked after they had been vetted and cleared.

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM), a United Nations (UN) agency that helps people displaced by conflict, natural disasters or other major crises, declined a US administration request to assist in resettling Afrikaners, the person familiar with the matter said.

The IOM did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Accounts from applicants who have been interviewed, the number of people approved so far and the request to the IOM have not previously been reported.

Two US refugee officers travelled to Pretoria to conduct interviews, said two US Department of Homeland Security officials, adding that some applicants who said Black South Africans had persecuted them had gained preliminary approval.

"I imagine some (applications) will be denied, as we do in all cases," said one official, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to discuss internal details about the process. "But I think there is administrative pressure to approve these."

Thrilled about Trump's order, Mark emailed the US embassy the next day, stating that he and his father had suffered grave injuries in a 2023 attack on their family farm.

Some time later, he received an email inviting him in. He and his wife flew to Pretoria for the interview, which lasted 55 minutes, he said. He saw the names of about a dozen other applicants signed in at the embassy.

Mark, who is in his 50s and worked in the food industry abroad for decades, said he had told US officials that Black empowerment laws had left him unemployable. The laws are intended by the government to correct past exclusion of Black South Africans from the economy under apartheid.

--Reuters--