Irish low-cost airline Ryanair is reportedly making some South African passengers take a general knowledge quiz about their own country in order to prove that they are, in fact, South African and not trying to use a fraudulent South African passport in order to get on flights to and from the United Kingdom.
A Ryanair spokesperson confirmed the carrier was making passengers travelling on a South African passport and who had been “flagged during procedural security profiling” complete a “simple questionnaire” as an added security layer to make sure they were South African.
The airline has also admitted to only making the questionnaire available in Afrikaans – one of 11 official languages spoken in South Africa and which less than 14 per cent of the South African population actually speaks.
“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,” Ryanair said in a statement.
“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,” the statement continued.
One South African passenger told News24 that she was denied access to the Ryanair flight from London Stansted to Dublin because she failed the test. Only after raising the matter with a supervisor and showing other forms of ID was she eventually allowed onboard the flight.
The questionnaire asks passengers things like the name of South Africa’s president, the country’s national flower and three official languages that are spoken in the country.
Some passengers say they have requested the form in English but have been rebuffed as they are expected to speak Afrikaans and failing to answer the questions due to language difficulties could be considered proof that their passport is fraudulent.
South Africa’s Department of International Relations says it is working with officials in the UK to “deal with” the issue.
BOYCOTT RYANAIR.
They are a horrible fake airline anyway and don’t deserve to grace the skies‼️
Afrikaans is the white version of original African languages and is no more than guessing how many marbles are in the jar in order to vote‼️
Will “they” ever stop 🛑