Australia is to consider white South African farmers as persecuted and is to offer them refuge with fast-tracked visa system.
Australia's Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton said, South Africa's white farmers needed help "from a civilised country like ours". Dutton added: "We want people who want to come here, abide by our laws, integrate into our society, work hard, not lead a life on welfare. And I think these people deserve special attention and we're certainly applying that special attention now."
The BBC found in November that there was no statistical proof that white farmers were more likely to be murdered than black farmers.
Gareth Newham at the Institute for Security Studies, one of South Africa’s leading authorities on crime statistics, said, “In fact, young black males living in poor urban areas like Khayelitsha and Lange face a far greater risk of being murdered. The murder rate there is between 200 and 300 murders per 100,000 people,” he said. Even the highest estimates of farm murders stand at 133 per 100,000 people, and that includes both black and white murder victims...I wouldn’t say that white farmers are more likely to be murdered than other groups, we don’t have enough evidence of that,” he added.
Fact-checking organisation Africa Check, in a detailed report on the subject of farm murders in general – not just of white farmers – suggested that another credible estimate of the farm murder rate could be as low as 0.4 murders per 100,000 people.
Koketso Moeti, executive director of Amandla.mobi, a local community advocacy organisation, said: “Statistics show black South Africans are the most affected by crime, landlessness and violence, as a result of historic and current forms of dispossession and injustices. We hear stories of horrific circumstances from our members every day. Where is the support for them?”
Dutton's comments come nearly six months after Australia agreed to pay $70m (£39.5m) in compensation and damages to around 2,000 asylum seekers, who had alleged physical and psychological abuse at its detention centre on Papua New Guinea's Manus Island. Human rights groups have repeatedly criticised Australia for its human rights violations on offshore detention centres.
A case of a white family seeking asylum, on the basis that they were persecuted for being white in a majority black country, was rejected in 2017 by the Canadian Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB).
Australia's Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton said, South Africa's white farmers needed help "from a civilised country like ours". Dutton added: "We want people who want to come here, abide by our laws, integrate into our society, work hard, not lead a life on welfare. And I think these people deserve special attention and we're certainly applying that special attention now."
The BBC found in November that there was no statistical proof that white farmers were more likely to be murdered than black farmers.
Gareth Newham at the Institute for Security Studies, one of South Africa’s leading authorities on crime statistics, said, “In fact, young black males living in poor urban areas like Khayelitsha and Lange face a far greater risk of being murdered. The murder rate there is between 200 and 300 murders per 100,000 people,” he said. Even the highest estimates of farm murders stand at 133 per 100,000 people, and that includes both black and white murder victims...I wouldn’t say that white farmers are more likely to be murdered than other groups, we don’t have enough evidence of that,” he added.
Fact-checking organisation Africa Check, in a detailed report on the subject of farm murders in general – not just of white farmers – suggested that another credible estimate of the farm murder rate could be as low as 0.4 murders per 100,000 people.
Koketso Moeti, executive director of Amandla.mobi, a local community advocacy organisation, said: “Statistics show black South Africans are the most affected by crime, landlessness and violence, as a result of historic and current forms of dispossession and injustices. We hear stories of horrific circumstances from our members every day. Where is the support for them?”
Dutton's comments come nearly six months after Australia agreed to pay $70m (£39.5m) in compensation and damages to around 2,000 asylum seekers, who had alleged physical and psychological abuse at its detention centre on Papua New Guinea's Manus Island. Human rights groups have repeatedly criticised Australia for its human rights violations on offshore detention centres.
A case of a white family seeking asylum, on the basis that they were persecuted for being white in a majority black country, was rejected in 2017 by the Canadian Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB).
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