Irish low-cost airline Ryanair has canceled a test to show passengers arriving from South Africa that they really come from that country, CEO Michael O’Leary told the BBC. The test was particularly controversial because the questions were asked in Afrikaans.
Afrikaans, which is of Dutch origin, is one of the eleven official languages of South Africa. About 12% of the population speaks this language as their mother tongue, but Afrikaans was also the language of apartheid.
During apartheid, white leaders demanded that the language be taught in schools alongside English. Ryanair never explained why the questions were asked in Afrikaans and not in English, Xhosa or Zulu.
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According to Ryanair, the test was necessary because many people traveled to the UK with false South African passports. These people can be discovered with a few simple questions, Ryanair thought. The test questions included where the capital of South Africa was and who was the president. Those who failed were not allowed to board the plane, but their ticket money was refunded.
Ryanair initially defended the policy, citing the hefty fines that airlines received when passengers with false passports were picked up at a UK airport. Now CEO O’Leary says the test “wasn’t right”: “People had no problem passing the test, but we don’t think it’s appropriate.”
Source: NOS
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