South Africans allegedly being blocked at UK airports, and made to undergo Afrikaans Language tests before they are allowed to fly

Information reaching Kossyderrickent has it that South Africans are allegedly

being blocked at UK airports, and made to undergo Afrikaans Language tests before they are allowed to fly. (Read More Here).

Department of International Relations and Cooperation spokesperson Lunga Ngqengelele said the department was aware of the reports.

“We’ve been alerted to it. We are working with our counterparts, both here and in the UK, to deal with it,” he said.

One South African said she had travelled to Dublin and had been asked to complete the test during check-in at London’s Stansted Airport before she could be issued a boarding pass.

She claimed she was told the form would prove she was South African because there had been an increase in fraudulent South African passports.

She said:

The form was given to me in Afrikaans, I asked for it in English. And the response was that if I was unable to complete the form, then it proved I was not South African.

Dinesh Joseph was handed the test on Sunday, 22 May, when returning to London’s Gatwick Airport from Lanzarote.

“It’s bizarre and atrocious. I asked to speak to the duty manager because I thought I was being pranked,” he said.

Joseph asked for the test in English, but said the Ryanair staff told him: “No, this is your language.”

He said the duty manager told him the form was Ryanair rules and he couldn’t fly unless he completed it.

Joseph resorted to Google Translate to get through the test, but said it left him feeling angry and hurt.

“I was really upset at the time… It tapped into a whole bunch of other discriminatory experiences as I’ve had as a person of colour,” he said.