Ryanair defended the controversial Afrikaans test for South African passport holders traveling in Europe on Tuesday, stressing that South Africa “has to fix its problems” as there are “many problems with forged documents”.
“There are many problems with forged passports. […] South Africa has to solve its problems,” Ryanair group chief executive Michael O’Leary told a news conference in Brussels.
In Brussels, for meetings with Belgian unions and discussions on the new rules for the EU emissions trading scheme, Ryanair group CEO Michael O’Leary was asked about the situation reported by passengers from the south of the country. tolerate more” alleged forged documents.
“Our team only asked simple questions in Afrikaans. We do a lot of tests normally,” said the official, devaluing the controversies.
The South African government said on Monday it was “dismayed” and “shocked” by Ryanair. after travelers made it public that the company requires South African passport holders to take an Afrikaans language test.
The executive headed by Cyril Ramaphosa highlighted that the general knowledge questionnaire about South Africa in the Afrikaans language, spoken by less than 15% of the population, it is not an official requirement of any country.
“We were surprised by the airline’s decision, because the Home Office communicates regularly with all airlines on how to validate South African passports,” executive sources said.
The South African Government reacted in this way to the justifications presented by the airline, which, given the outrage generated in South Africa in recent days, claimed to have imposed the measure due to the proliferation of forged South African passports.
The controversy began to grow at the end of May, after South Africans who had traveled through Europe with Ryanair shared on networks that they had been forced to answer a questionnaire about their country in Afrikaansone of the 11 official languages of the country and the one that was favored in times of the racial segregation regime racial segregation.
Among the travelers who publicly expressed their outrage was a student who flew from Portugal to the UK and took the two-page exam, available only in Afrikaans under the threat of not receiving a boarding pass if you do not answer all questionseven if you have a UK residence permit.
Given these testimonies, the High Commission of the United Kingdom in Pretoria also entered into the controversy to reaffirm that The Ryanair questionnaire was not a “requirement” of the British Government, but of the airlinethat it does not fly with South Africa and continues to advocate for the completion of the questionnaire.
Source: Observadora
