99.97% of all United States refugees come from South Africa

The United States’ latest report on refugee arrivals by state and nationality for the 2026 financial year showed that nearly all people came from South Africa.

The report, which provides data from 1 October 2025 to 31 July 2026, showed that the United States accepted 10,258 refugees.

Of these 10,258 refugees, 10,255 came from South Africa, and 3 came from Afghanistan. Since December 2005, only South African refugees have arrived.

The data further revealed that the number of South African refugees who arrived in the United States has increased significantly this year.

In November 2025, 122 South African refugees arrived in the United States. This increased to 595 in December 2025 and 931 in January 2026.

July 2026 was the biggest month ever, with 2,258 South Africans arriving in the United States as refugees.

The most popular state to place these refugees was Texas, with 1,267, followed by California with 801, and Florida with 776.

These numbers are expected, as there have been numerous reports that thousands of Afrikaners were leaving South Africa through the U.S. refugee programme.

The programme was launched after U.S. President Donald Trump announced actions to address the ‘egregious actions of the Republic of South Africa’ in February 2025.

These actions included a refugee resettlement programme for Afrikaners in South Africa who are victims of unjust racial discrimination.

It prioritised humanitarian relief, including admission and resettlement through the United States Refugee Admissions Program.

Within the first month of the programme’s launch, the U.S. State Department said it had received over 8,000 initial inquiries.

The first group of Afrikaner refugees arrived at Dulles International Airport on 12 May 2025. Since then, the programme has accelerated significantly.

In October 2025, the United States set a strict annual refugee cap of 7,500 for the entire 2026 fiscal year, effectively reserving nearly all of it for South Africans.

However, because the pipeline was completely bottlenecked by thousands of pending files, the U.S. administration issued an emergency declaration.

Through this declaration, the South African allocation was increased by an additional 10,000 slots, raising the ceiling to 17,500.

The chart below shows the number of South African refugees who arrived in the United States over the last nine months.