The United States received 10,258 refugees in the first 10 months of its 2026 fiscal year, but an overwhelming 10,255 of them came from South Africa, as President Donald Trump’s policy of prioritising Afrikaner refugees dramatically reshaped America’s refugee intake.
The United States received 10,258 refugees in the first 10 months of its 2026 fiscal year, with South Africans accounting for 10,255, or 99.97% of all arrivals.
The figure represents a nearly 30-fold jump from the 342 South African refugees admitted in the entire 2025 fiscal year, with South Africans now accounting for 99.97% of all refugees admitted to the US between October 1, 2025 and July 31, 2026.
The remaining three refugees came from Afghanistan, according to the latest US Refugee Processing Center data covering October 1, 2025, to July 31, 2026.
The figures mark an extraordinary shift in the composition of America’s refugee programme, with South Africa emerging as by far the largest source of refugees admitted to the US this year.
