Outrage after Ryanair forces South Africans to prove nationality with controversial Afrikaans test

Irish airline Ryanair asked South African travellers to take an Afrikaans test to prove their nationality before boarding flights. Terming it discriminatory, South Africans have condemned the controversial language test by the airline. The policy has caused outrage but the airline says it is still insisting that all South Africans travelling to the UK on flights to take the test. Ryanair asked South Africans flying to Britain and Ireland to fill out a questionnaire. Notably, the passengers who fail to complete it are denied travel. The tickets are also fully refunded apparently.

The row erupted after the Irish budget airline admitted on Monday (June 6) that it required South Africans flying to Britain and Ireland to fill out a questionnaire to test their knowledge of Afrikaans.

The airline said in a statement: "Due to the high prevalence of fraudulent South African passports, we require passengers travelling to the UK to fill out a simple questionnaire issued in Afrikaans. If they are unable to complete this questionnaire, they will be refused travel and issued with a full refund."

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Importantly, Afrikaans was made mandatory during apartheid -- and the official language of education, alongside English. At that time, it prompted nationwide protests by black South Africans. Afrikaans played a controversial role in the oppression of black citizens during apartheid.

Afrikaans is just one of 11 official languages in South Africa. It is commonly used by around 12 per cent of the country's population of nearly 60 million.

Responding to the incident, South Africa on Tuesday said it was surprised. The country's Department of Home Affairs said in a statement: "We are taken aback by the decision of this airline because the Department regularly communicates with all airlines to update them on how to validate South African passports, including the look and feel."

A South African man told BBC that he was "shocked" and felt "oppressed". Dinesh Joseph was flying from Lanzarote to London in May. He said that the airline gave him the Afrikaans test.

Joseph told the BBC's Newshour: "I was seething, I felt really triggered... there was a sense of anxiety and anger inside of me. It's callous and insensitive to force people to write a test which would evoke so much emotion around it - the language of apartheid was Afrikaans."

(With inputs from agencies)

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