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US cuts funding to civil society organisations assisting refugees in SA

Source: Samigration, 06/03/2025

`Shortly after taking office in January, US President Donald Trump ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid. - and asylum seekers in South Africa have received notices from the United States terminating their funding. - This comes after US President Donald Trump initially ordered a 90-day pause in foreign aid in January. - A human rights lawyer has said the cessation of this sort of funding will have a devastating impact. Just weeks after the United States invited Afrikaners to become refugees, the US Department of State`s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration has cut off funding to civil society organisations providing services to refugees and asylum seekers in South Africa.Shortly after taking office in January, US President Donald Trump ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid. A month later, and despite pending litigation, the Trump administration has started terminating most US foreign aid contracts and grants, Reuters reported. Organisations in South Africa that provide services to assist refugees and asylum seekers who migrated to the southern tip of Africa have not been spared. Refugee Social Services (RSS) and Scalabrini Centre of Cape Town confirmed to News24 that they received letters on Wednesday notifying them that funding from the US Department of State`s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration had been terminated. ``This award is being terminated for the convenience of the US government, pursuant to a directive from US Secretary of State Mario Rubio, for aligning with agenda priorities and national interest,`` the letter read. ``The decision to terminate this individual award is a policy determination vested in the secretary of state.``The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) told News24 that it was aware of reports that some organisations in South Africa had received notifications regarding the cessation of US funding. The UNHCR, which has also been impacted by the 90-day pause in US funding, said its biggest concern was the well-being and safety of the millions of refugees and forcibly displaced people worldwide.``Every day that this financial uncertainty continues will increase the impact on the lives of the millions of people that have fled their homes to find security.``Helping the vulnerable Yasmin Rajah, director of the KwaZulu-Natal-based RSS, said the organisation had relied on the US for a grant to provide services for vulnerable refugees and asylum seekers. She said these particularly vulnerable migrants include the elderly, people with disabilities and those suffering from terminal illnesses who have limited support networks with no one to look after them.The services offered included counselling, safe spaces, and a small amount of money to cover medication, transportation to medical facilities, food, and housing. Following the cessation of the grant, Rajah said the RSS would have to consider retrenchments. She said the organisation was also scrambling to work out a way to continue caring for this vulnerable group of migrants. With the greatest concern being hunger, Rajah said RSS had reached out to faith-based organisations to provide food parcels to fill the gap, but this had not been nearly enough. She told News24:We didn`t have enough notice to sort things out.Despite this, Rajah said the organisation was grateful for the support it received from the US as it had filled a ``very significant gap``.Devastating Jacob van Garderen, human rights lawyer and director at Public Interest Practice, told News24 that the impact of the funding cuts would be devastating. However, he said, perhaps less so in South Africa, where refugees and asylum seekers are not entirely dependent on humanitarian assistance for their survival, as the government allows integration so that migrants can get work and don`t have to live in camps. ``But still, organisations like Scalabrini and RSS, who deliver essential support to migrant communities, will [suffer] a severe impact on their work and support of services of these communities, [which] is always focused on the most at risk and vulnerable communities, such as children, women at risk, disabled migrants, etc,`` Van Garderen said. He said very few of these organisations, if any, would have the reserves to continue the work unabated. Internationally, the big concern is not just that the US government has done it (cut funding), but more the way in which they have done it, without prior notice or transition.He said it was difficult to escape the conclusion that the funding cut was meant to punish and decimate a humanitarian infrastructure. `It`s cruel. It is not what you would have expected from the US, [which], for all its criticisms, has established itself as the largest donor of support to humanitarian action globally.``Afrikaner refugeeThe decision to cut aid to these organisations helping refugees and asylum seekers comes less than a month after an executive order by Trump, potentially offering Afrikaners refugee resettlement in the US. In his 7 February executive order, Trump also authorised the secretary of state and the secretary of homeland security to take ``appropriate steps`` to prioritise ``humanitarian relief``, including ``admission and resettlement through the United States Refugee Admissions Programme, for Afrikaners in South Africa who are victims of unjust racial discrimination``.However, on 20 January, Trump signed another order suspending all applications for refugee status until the homeland security advisor submits a report regarding whether the resumption of refugees` entry into the US would be in the interests of the Western powerhouse.`

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