Ryanair's South African Test

irishproduce

See in the headlines section on RTE there is a piece that Ryanair is asking South African's in Europe using the airline to complete a test in Afrikaans even though a lot of people don't speak it.

https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2022/0607/1303355-ryanair/

However, in typical RTE fashion, it is not entirely clear what is substantially behind the lines

"But it said that it required any UK-bound passengers from the country to fill in the "simple questionnaire" due to what it described as a high prevalence of fraudulent South African passports.

"If they are unable to complete this questionnaire, they will be refused travel and issued with a full refund," a spokesman for the airline said"

Anyone any additional reliable source of information on what exactly that means? Are there people entering Europe with fake passports or are there people acquiring fake passports once they are inside Europe?

joseywhales

I doubt this, given that zulu is the dominant language, it would be a pr disaster for Ryanair

donaghs

I noticed this story, typical click-bait outrage, no context as to why this is happening. Ryanair just decided there were too many fake South African passports?

After a bit of googling, it looks like international criminals are bribing South African officials to get high quality passports produced.

SA flagging fake IDs, passports with foreign countries to chase down syndicates | News24

Now, is there any details on what pushed Ryanair to take this unusual and controversial step (e.g. Afrikaans test), when apparently no other airline is concerned about the South African fake passports?

Fr Tod Umptious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058249208/ryanairs-south-african-test

However, in typical RTE fashion, it is not entirely clear what is substantially behind the lines

In typical BBC fashion also then.

I read the very same article with the same level of details on the BBC site yesterday.

riffmongous

Apparently the airline can get fined 2000 pounds per passenger who travelled fraudulently. Now why they went to the bother of implementing the test when on other airline does, and then to do it so poorly, and why they won't back down or change to include other languages is another thing.

"In order to minimize the risk of fake passport usage, Ryanair requires passengers on a South African passport to fill out a simple questionnaire in the Afrikaans language," reads the statement provided to CNN.

"If they are unable to complete this questionnaire, they will be refused travel and issued with a full refund instead.

"Airlines operating to the UK face Home Office fines of £2,000 (around $2,515) per passenger for anyone who travel illegally to the UK on a fraudulent passport/visa."

TelePaul

It's so awkward for many reasons (not least that it's discriminatory in it's confinement to a single country) but the fact that the vast majority of Afrikaans speakers are white, and 5-10% of South Africa's population. What do you do if you're black and learnt Zulu? The optics of this are awful for several reasons

Dempo1

Saw this reported on on UK News sites , there does not appear to any direct from SA or UK authorities but the SA has warned of an enormous increase in FAKE SA Passports circulating. Don't quite understand the Test Ryanair have implemented but at a guess it's motivated by potentially heavy fines if they allow passengers fly with Passports later proven to be false.

But this raises a question.

How is it possible Passengers with Fake Passports are even getting near Boarding areas , surely checking Passports is the primary responsibility of Border, immigration, passport control etc.

riffmongous

The questions do seem pretty basic if you can understand any of the language, I can read a few from knowing a bit of German and Dutch, but that's not the point of course. You could ask what is the capital of Ireland as Gaeilge and plenty of Irish people wouldn't have a clue

Dempo1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119170679#Comment_119170679

That's easy , Corcaigh 😁😁

Mr.S

This is one of those things you'd scratch your head and wonder who in gods name approved this at Ryanair HQ?

It's a cost saving measure as they obviously have to pay fines if people on fake passports come in via a Ryanair flight, but why would they pick a language only a smaller % speaks, and ontop of that - a language rooted in controversy!? It's just a weird approach all round.

I work with a handful of South Africans and onlyone can actually read Afrikaans.

Dempo1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119170913#Comment_119170913

It certainly is the oddest thing in fairness, I wouldn't mind if it was a government mandated thing , obviously they've been hammered with fines but I still don't get how fake passports are getting near boarding areas nor why its an airlines responsibility to verify a passport is ligitmate.

donaghs

The passports are made by corrupt SA “home affairs” passport staff, so they apparently are very well made.

http://www.dha.gov.za/index.php/statements-speeches/1552-home-affairs-official-amongst-five-suspects-arrested-for-passport-fraud-in-mbombela-mpumalanga

But also I’m not sure why the burden of responsibility is with Ryanair. Unless the fines for allowing them fly were so punitive to make them think these checks were worth all the bad publicity etc.

DaCor

Can you imagine if a similar test was done in Irish for Irish passport holders. The amount of folks being stranded would be enormous, myself included.

Fr Tod Umptious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119170960#Comment_119170960

Probably because passports are usually checked at the port of entry.

Sure a airline agent will check a passport to verify that the name matches the boarding info and that the picture matches the person presenting that info, but they are not going to be able to determine the subtle difference between a real and a fake.

It's the actual border patrol at the point of entry that do the more detailed checks.

Dempo1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119171024#Comment_119171024

A, I see, thanks 😉

osarusan

Monumentally stupid decision.

Astonishing that it made it all the way from an idea to an implemented policy.

Dempo1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119171000#Comment_119171000

Interesting that 😉

Mrs OBumble

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119171013#Comment_119171013

You've had a minimum 14 years education in your language. I'm sure you'd manage to remember some of it if you really needed to.

end of the road

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119172281#Comment_119172281

not really given how it is thought.

mikeybhoy

I thought Ryanair was expanding into SA when I read the title lol

Atlantic Dawn

If the passport has all the correct security features of South Africa issued passports and the photo matches it shouldn't be up to Ryanair to have to prove if a passenger got it in a lucky bag or not. South African passports should be banned from all international travel and reissued if they have been widely compromised.

conorhal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119172347#Comment_119172347

Meanwhile Ireland remains a nation that allows visa free travel from a place so corrupt that it's become a hub for people trafficking and false documents..... Head in the sand as usual.

DaCor

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119172281#Comment_119172281

I could ask to go to the toilet and that's about it

https://youtu.be/CJFL2eerq-Q

Dyr

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119171013#Comment_119171013

Good.

Pronto63

Would it not more sense to declare that they will not accept any SA passport holders until such time as the SA authorities can guarantee their authenticity.

If ALL airlines adopted this policy it would be sorted pretty damn quick.

Ce he sin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119170644#Comment_119170644

In perhaps surprising news, only a minority of Afrikaans speakers are white. The majority are mixed race.

TelePaul

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119176794#Comment_119176794

Right but the point is that if you were gauging language proficiency as a means of inferring legitimate citizenship, you should start with Zulu then Xhosa