The Trump administration announced plans on Thursday to drastically cut back the number of refugees to be accepted annually by the United States to a record low and give priority to white South Africans.

Under the new policy, the United States would welcome only 7,500 refugees in fiscal 2026, down from more than 100,000 a year under Democratic president Joe Biden.

The vast majority of those being accepted during the fiscal year which began on October 1 would be white South Africans and "other victims of illegal or unjust discrimination in their respective homelands," according to a White House memo.

"The admissions numbers shall primarily be allocated among Afrikaners from South Africa," it said.

US President Donald Trump essentially halted refugee arrivals after taking office in January, but has been making an exception for white South Africans despite Pretoria's insistence they do not face persecution in their homeland.

A first group of around 50 Afrikaners – descendants of the first European settlers of South Africa – arrived for resettlement in the United States in May.

Trump campaigned for the White House on a pledge to deport millions of undocumented migrants and signed an executive order in January suspending the US Refugee Admissions Programme.

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, said that since 1980 more than two million people fleeing persecution have been admitted into the United States under the programme.

"Now it will be used as a pathway for White immigration," Reichlin-Melnick said on X. "What a downfall for a crown jewel of America's international humanitarian programmes." (AFP)