Canberra, Australia
Give us your whites: An Australian government minister has drawn criticism for offering fast-track asylum to white farmers from South Africa. Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton said white farmers, who could face uncompensated confiscation of their farms under South Africa’s new land redistribution program, are being persecuted and “need help from a civilized country like ours.” Australian opposition lawmakers and human rights groups said the suggestion was racist, and the South African government demanded that Dutton retract his comments. Whites account for 9 percent of South Africa’s population but own 72 percent of the country’s farmland. Critics noted that Dutton has previously described immigration to Australia from Lebanon as a mistake and has refused to offer fast-track asylum to Rohingya refugees fleeing ethnic cleansing in Myanmar.