Dublin, Ireland- Ireland’s low-cost airline, Ryanair, is forcing South Africans flying to and from the United Kingdom (UK) on Ryanair to complete a 15-question general knowledge form in Afrikaans or be denied entry to their flight.
According to the airline, the test is aimed to tackle the high prevalence of fraudulent South African passports.
“Due to the recent increase in passengers attempting to travel on fraudulent South African passports, our handling agents may request passengers travelling on a South African passport, and who are flagged during procedural security profiling, to complete a simple questionnaire, as an additional safety assessment to confirm whether they are correctly documented before travel. As language proficiency is the least intrusive further safety assessment method, this questionnaire is conducted through Afrikaans, one of South Africa’s most prevalent official languages,” said the airline.
Some of the 15 questions include a multiple-choice on South Africa’s capital city, naming three official languages, which side of the road South Africans drive on, and the President’s name.
South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation spokesperson Lunga Ngqengelele said the department was aware of the reports and was working on resolving the issue, “We have been alerted to it. We are working with our counterparts, both here and in the UK, to deal with it.”
Meanwhile, the Irish Embassy to South Africa’s deputy head of mission, Tim Reilly, told News24 that the test was not an entry requirement.
“We are aware of these reports which appear to have originated from a thread on Reddit. We are happy to clarify that the Irish immigration authorities do not under any circumstances require or administer such tests to passengers travelling to Ireland.
Holders of valid South African passports do not need a visa to come to Ireland for tourism or similar reasons. However, other standard immigration procedures do apply and all travellers (regardless of their country of citizenship) must be able to satisfy the immigration officer at the port of entry that they have a valid reason for entering Ireland,” said Reilly
Nevertheless, Ryanair has not announced plans to withdraw the form, and it seems to remain in effect.
