SPEAKIN’ OUT NEWS
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — A 27-year-old refugee resettlement worker says she lost her job after publicly criticizing her nonprofit employer for participating in a controversial Trump-era program that resettles white Afrikaners from South Africa in Alabama.
Yasmeen Othman, a former employment specialist at Inspiritus, said she was fired on May 21, days after she shared her objections in an interview with AL.com. Othman said she felt it was “disrespectful” to genuine refugees fleeing violence for the nonprofit to instead prioritize Afrikaners — a minority group with roots in South Africa’s apartheid system.
“It is unjust for us to no longer be serving actual refugees from around the world… but instead only serving people who don’t qualify as refugees, and have been given special treatment,” Othman told AL.com.
Her employer cited violations of internal policy and her efforts to persuade coworkers to resist the decision as reasons for her dismissal. Inspiritus declined to comment on personnel matters.
The controversy centers on a Trump administration initiative to admit 59 Afrikaners as refugees — a move made while blocking thousands of other asylum-seekers from countries experiencing war, persecution, and political violence. Trump has claimed, without credible evidence, that Afrikaners are facing “genocide” in South Africa. The South African president has publicly denied those claims.
Afrikaners are descendants of European colonizers and were a dominant force during the apartheid regime. Today, some Afrikaners claim they face racial discrimination under South Africa’s Black-majority government.
Othman, who graduated from UAB’s Collat School of Business, said she raised concerns with Inspiritus leaders immediately after learning of the policy shift. She also organized two internal meetings to urge colleagues to reconsider their silence.
“They offered hollow justifications for not acting themselves,” she said. “One person said they were afraid not helping Afrikaners would make them look racist toward white people.”
Some religious organizations, like the Episcopal Church, declined to take part in the Afrikaner resettlement and ended their long-running refugee services nationwide in protest. But Inspiritus, with offices in Alabama, Georgia, and Tennessee, chose to move forward.
“We are mandated to serve all refugees, no matter how they arrive,” said Liz Kurtz, Alabama refugee coordinator for Inspiritus, in a previous statement to AL.com.
Othman said the nonprofit justified its cooperation by suggesting it could restore access for other refugees in the future — a tradeoff she found morally unacceptable.
“I felt ethically obligated to speak out,” she said. “People think that if you fight for the right thing, nothing bad should happen. But unfortunately, that’s not the case.”
Just before her firing, Othman said a local business representative visited the office and expressed interest in hiring Afrikaners — but not non-English-speaking refugees, whom they described as needing to be “babysat.”
Despite losing her job, Othman remains defiant.
“I would definitely do it again,” she said.