Ryanair requires South African passengers to prove their nationality with an Afrikaans test. However, only 12 percent of the population speak the language.
A Ryanair plane lands at Gatwick Airport.
pop./(Reuters)
Ryanair, Europe’s largest airline by passenger numbers, has said it requires South African passengers flying to the UK to fill out a “simple questionnaire”.
As justification, Ryanair referred to a high number of counterfeit South African passports. “If they are unable to complete this questionnaire, they will be refused travel and a full refund will be made,” said a spokesman for the Irish airline. Ryanair said this applies to any South African passport holder flying to the UK on the airline from another part of Europe.
UK Government: Tests not required for entry
The airline, which itself does not offer flights to and from South Africa, initially did not answer the question of why this regulation should apply to these routes. The British High Commission in South Africa previously said on Twitter that the test was not a British government requirement for entry into the United Kingdom.
Afrikaans is the third most widely spoken of South Africa’s 11 official languages and is spoken by 12 percent of the country’s 58 million people. It was the country’s official language until the end of apartheid in 1994.
The language has its origins in the Dutch settlement of South Africa in the 17th century and has long been associated with racial segregation and the ideology of apartheid, which was mainly enforced and propagated by the white minority of the National Party from 1948 onwards. Their dominance under apartheid was seen as a symbol of inequality.