JOHANNESBURG, South Africa —
South Africa on Tuesday said it was surprised at Irish budget airline Ryanair’s “backward
profiling” of passengers, who were given a pre-travel test in Afrikaans to
prove they were legitimate passport holders.
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The airline has
admitted it imposed a requirement for South Africans flying to
Britain and Ireland to fill out a questionnaire issued in Afrikaans “due to the high
prevalence of fraudulent South African passports”.
Passengers who fail to complete the questionnaire
are denied travel and fully refunded for their tickets.
Afrikaans, just one
of 11 official languages in South Africa, played a controversial role in the
oppression of black citizens during apartheid.
South Africa’s Department of Home Affairs said in a
statement: “We are taken aback by the decision of this airline because the
Department regularly communicates with all airlines to update them on how to
validate South African passports, including the look and feel.”
The department also
runs 24-hour operations center that airlines can access to verify South African
passports. “It is not clear to which
extent the airline has used these services before resorting to this backward
profiling system,” it said.
In response to
uproar on social media,
Britain’s ambassador in South Africa took to Twitter to
clarify that such language and general knowledge tests were “not a UK
government requirement” for South Africans entering the United Kingdom. “Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi is at the
forefront of efforts to bring an end to the abuse of South African travel
documents,” the statement said.
The Pan South African Language Board (PanSALB), a state
organization tasked with promoting multilingualism in the country, was
disgusted by Ryanair’s method of verifying passports through an Afrikaans test.
“We find this reckless decision by
Ryanair quite problematic and is reminiscent
of the old colonial and apartheid systematic subjugation of speakers of other
languages, mainly black people, to racial and linguistic discrimination,” the
board’s head Lance Schultz said in a statement.
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