The list of over 67,000 individuals was handed over to the US Embassy in South Africa on Thursday.
The South African Chamber of Commerce in the USA, which claims to be a contact between South Africans interested in the USA and the USA, emphasizes to the news agency AP that it is not about official applications to travel to the USA on a refugee quota.
President Donald Trump signed a presidential order in February to withdraw all aid to South Africa. He accuses the country of discriminating against white Africans – descendants of European colonizers in South Africa – and claims that the government in Pretoria seizes land and allows violent attacks on white farmers.
The South African government has rejected the allegations and says that the land reform Trump is assumed to be referring to is not linked to ethnicity.
But the South African Chamber of Commerce in the USA welcomes the idea that a large number of compatriots may come.
"The living South African diaspora in the USA looks forward to welcoming and supporting those who come, especially those who have received refugee status," the Chamber writes in a statement according to South African Business Tech.
South Africa's ambassador to the USA, Ebrahim Rasool, was expelled from the USA last week. Foreign Minister Marco Rubio then accused the ambassador of hating the USA and Donald Trump in a post on X.
