HAMILTON, Canada

The US welcomed the first group of Afrikaner "refugees" from South Africa on Monday as part of a new resettlement initiative led by the Trump administration.

"Today, Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau welcomed the first group of Afrikaner refugees to the United States," said State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce in a statement.

"This tremendous accomplishment, at the direction of Secretary (of State Marco) Rubio, responds to President (Donald) Trump's call to prioritize US refugee resettlement of this vulnerable group facing unjust racial discrimination in South Africa," she said.

The decision to resettle Afrikaner “refugees" is part of what the State Department called a commitment to "protect victims of racial discrimination" in line with Trump's foreign policy.

"We stand with these refugees as they build a better future for themselves and their children in the United States," she said.

Criticizing the conditions the Afrikaner population faces in South Africa, Bruce said: "No one should have to fear having their property seized without compensation or becoming the victim of violent attacks because of their ethnicity."

"In the coming months, we will continue to welcome more Afrikaner refugees and help them rebuild their lives in our great country," she added.

Afrikaners are a white ethnic minority who are primarily descendants of Dutch, German and French settlers who arrived at the Cape of Good Hope in 1652 and ruled South Africa during the brutal apartheid regime of racial segregation, which frequently resulted in the violent repression of Black South Africans until 1994.

In a Feb. 7 executive order, Trump directed authorities to begin resettling Afrikaner “refugees,” describing the group as "victims of unjust racial discrimination."

However, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa recently argued that white Afrikaners who are being "enticed" to go to the US "do not fit the definition of a refugee."

He said his country is the only one in Africa where the colonizers stayed and "we have never driven them out of our country."