Andre, his wife, and their six-year-old son were approved to leave South Africa and come to the United States as refugees more than 200 days ago. “Literally three days before departure, they cancelled the tickets and said don’t make any drastic changes. That was too late, we were already totally committed for the program,” Andre, who requested that his full name be withheld due to threats, told The Daily Wire. “We gave away everything … we basically used up all our savings, we are close to being on the street,” he said. Andre’s story is just one of many Afrikaners — South Africa’s white population — who were approved to come to the United States as refugees escaping racial persecution, received airline tickets, and then had their trips cancelled. The Daily Wire spoke with several approved refugees who remain stuck in South Africa, with no answers. President Donald Trump signed an executive order in February 2025 to allow Afrikaners, “who are victims of unjust racial discrimination,” into the United States as refugees and to prioritize their admissions. All the while, Trump cut total annual refugee admissions from 125,000 to 7,500. Trump is said to be considering increasing the annual refugee cap to 17,500 to support more white Afrikaners, CNN reported Monday. It’s not clear if that would help the many Afrikaners who are stuck in limbo. Afrikaners are an ethnic minority in South Africa who descended from Dutch and French Huguenot settlers. The Trump administration has said they’re victims of a racial genocide in South Africa. Last May, Trump confronted the South African president, who denied the existence of a white genocide, during a visit to Washington by showing him video of calls to violence by government officials in South Africa. One clip featured in the video showed Julius Malema, a member of South Africa’s National Assembly, singing “Kill the Boer” at a political rally, a reference to Afrikaners. Trump’s refugee policy changes prompted left-leaning groups like the Church World Service (CWS), a faith-based group, to take the Trump administration to court challenging its “discriminatory preference for white Afrikaners.” Despite suing the government, CWS is now playing an integral role in the Trump administration’s refugee resettlement program for Afrikaners through its Resettlement Support Center Africa (RSC). The nonprofit organization has worked with the federal government to resettle refugees since 1980. Trump attempted to freeze funding and cancelled contracts to organizations involved in refugee resettlement, like CWS, but some of the attempts have been blocked by courts. The federal government has shelled out more than $246 million in grants to the organization, with the funds making up roughly 87% of the group’s income, according to its website. The Afrikaners notified by CWS that their one-way tickets to the United States were canceled said the organization has left them in the dark regarding the fate of their cases. In many instances, their medical evaluations expired, forcing them to redo that part of the process, which for some means taking hours-long drives and booking hotel stays to complete new vaccinations and testing. Some of them had already sold their cars after being told they would leave the country within days or weeks. The overseas medical exams are valid for only six months, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Andre, who was set to be resettled in Fort Worth, Texas, described CWS’ role in the resettlement of Afrikaners as “horrific,” saying “they do not respond to any emails … you can’t call them, you can’t ask for any information.” “If you do get a reply back it’s an automated response,” Andre said. One Afrikaner woman, who requested anonymity for her safety, applied for refugee status in May 2025 and received her flight tickets in January. “I was very, very happy, very grateful and I was ready to go. I rushed home, packed up everything, got rid of everything,” she told The Daily Wire. Days before her scheduled departure, CWS notified her that her trip had been canceled and that her case “went back to in progress.” By that time, she had already quit her full-time job and gotten rid of most of her belongings. She remains stuck in South Africa. “We got an email saying now we’re under review now and since then it’s been dead silence,” she said. “It’s like giving a child some candy and just before they put it in their mouth, they take it back. It was terrifying,” she added. Her medical evaluation then expired in April and she had to go back and redo the required testing and vaccinations. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), which processes the cases, didn’t respond to The Daily Wire’s request for comment. A State Department spokesperson told The Daily Wire that “President Trump has been very clear that we are prioritizing the resettlement of Afrikaners in South Africa who are escaping government-sponsored race-based discrimination.” The spokesperson declined to comment “on the details of specific refugee cases.” Without answers on their cases, many of the refugees are forced to live among their threats. Some move from house to house to avoid attacks and many rarely leave their homes after facing violent attacks and racial discrimination. One Afrikaner woman who also spoke on the condition of anonymity said she applied for the refugee program after her family faced racially motivated attacks, including one where her daughter was raped and the police refused to act. “The police said she asked for it,” the woman said. “This child was broken. My kids have got no future in this country … And now we’re sitting, we’re waiting, we’re not hearing. We’re stressed, we don’t know what’s going on. This thing has taken such a toll on us,” she added. Several Afrikaners who spoke with us said their children wouldn’t be able to secure jobs after school because they’re white. But one message was clear, the Afrikaners don’t want Americans to perceive them as entitled. They made clear that they want to work and lead self-sufficient lives in the safety of the United States. “When we get there, I don’t want to be dependent on the United States government to just provide and, provide and provide,” Pierre, an Afrikaner living in Cape Town and still awaiting the fate of his case after applying over a year ago, said. Pierre and his wife’s medical evaluations expired in April and CWS still hasn’t rescheduled their appointments, he said. “I don’t want anybody to think that we’re entitled to this, or we’re trying to demand anything. It’s just that it’s become really unbearable in South Africa,” he said. CWS didn’t respond to a request for comment.