Bypassing the system: How an Afrikaner’s asylum claim led to over 100 days behind bars in the US
Afrikaner’s asylum bid ends in handcuffs in Trump crackdown.
Image: Marco Longari / AFP
A white South African man who sought asylum in the United States has been held for nearly 100 days in a federal detention centre in Georgia after arriving on a tourist visa and requesting protection on arrival, according to The New York Times (NYT).
In September, Benjamin Schoonwinkel, 59, an Afrikaner from South Africa, boarded a flight from Johannesburg to Atlanta and told US border officials that he was seeking asylum.
However, he did not enter through the refugee programme designated by the US government. Instead, he travelled on a tourist visa and applied for asylum at the airport.
According to the NYT, Schoonwinkel was placed in handcuffs on arrival and transferred within two days to the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia, where about 2,000 people detained under President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown are being held.
He has been reportedly in custody for over 100 days.
Commenting on the case, Sam Busa, founder of Amerikaners, the designated US Department of State referral partner for the South African Refugee Admissions Programme, warned against bypassing official channels.
“This is why it’s vital to follow the rules,” she said. “Instead of applying properly for refugee status through the official process, like others have successfully done, a 59-year-old Afrikaner flew from Johannesburg to Atlanta on a tourist visa, then asked for asylum right at the airport.”
Busa said the outcome was predictable. “Lessons learned: Stick to the process.”
Schoonwinkel, who speaks English and Afrikaans, shared a dormitory with dozens of immigrants, most of whom are Spanish speakers arrested under the administration’s mass deportation drive. Like other non-criminal detainees, he wears a blue uniform, sleeps on a metal bunk bed and earns $2 a day for cleaning duties.
But the NYT reported that, unlike many of his fellow detainees who travelled to the United States from impoverished communities in Latin America, Schoonwinkel left behind what the newspaper described as a comparatively comfortable life.
He is also one of the few white detainees in the facility, a fact that has drawn confusion from others being held there.
“They all ask me, ‘What are you doing here?’” he told the publication.
In his asylum application, reviewed by the newspaper, Schoonwinkel said he had been persecuted on the basis of his race, political opinion and membership of a particular social group. He alleged that in December 2014 he was attacked on his farm by two black men, who he said beat him, tied him up and held him at knife point while the property was looted.
“I lost all my hope of walking out alive,” he said, adding that the attack had left “deep emotional scars”. He said he later sold his land because of security concerns.
Despite language barriers, Schoonwinkel told the NYT that he has formed friendships in detention, recently cooking spaghetti with detainees from Colombia and Mexico.
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