Ryanair accused of discrimination for putting South Africans through Afrikaans test

The new rule implemented by Ryanair to put South African through a general knowledge test in Afrikaans has sparked serious allegations of discrimination. The airline is currently conducting the test for every person travelling with a South African passport and it is completely in Afrikaans. However, a lot of people were quick to point out that there were 11 other languages which are popular in South Africa and Afrikaans ranks third. It is also a language that played a controversial role in oppression of black citizens during the notorious apartheid period. There were also some concerns raised about the subject matter of the test as they felt it will not help in identifying a genuine passport holder.

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Zulu and Xhosa are currently the two most popular languages in South Africa.

Ryanair, on the other hand, made it clear that the only purpose of the test is to curb the high number of people who travel on a fake South African passport. A spokesperson for the company said that “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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The decision to conduct the test was taken after South African government said that the manufacturing and selling fake South African passports has gone up in the recent times. But the British government has said that the test is not compulsory.

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(With inputs from agencies)