By Staff Reporter
More than 150 Palestinian refugees were stranded for over 13 hours aboard a grounded aircraft at Johannesburg’s OR Tambo International Airport on Thursday before being allowed to disembark and enter South Africa late in the evening.
Global Airways, a Johannesburg-based charter and leasing company, confirmed the incident in a statement, saying all passengers aboard the charter were initially declared inadmissible upon arrival at 07:50.
“As required under South African and international immigration laws and protocols, Global Airways shared the list of passengers and their travel credentials with the relevant South African authorities twenty-four hours prior to the flight’s departure,” the airline said.
“At no point prior to landing was Global Airways informed that the passengers would be deemed inadmissible,” the statement continued.
The airline said it was cooperating with the Border Management Authority (BMA) and assisting with “repatriation or onward travel arrangements for the affected passengers,” referring further queries to the BMA.
The humanitarian organisation Gift of the Givers said the refugees were kept on the plane for several hours because Israeli authorities refused to stamp their passports with exit visas.
“The Border Management Authority acted in keeping with their mandate not to allow passengers without an exit stamp to disembark,” said Dr Imtiaz Sooliman, founder of Gift of the Givers.
Sooliman accused Israel of deliberately withholding the exit stamps “to exacerbate the suffering of these poor people in a foreign country.”
He thanked South Africa’s Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Ronald Lamola, and his director-general, Zane Dangor, for intervening to resolve the crisis.
According to Sooliman, Lamola wrote to the Department of Home Affairs requesting a waiver of the exit-stamp requirement to allow the refugees into South Africa.
This is the second chartered flight carrying Palestinians fleeing the war in Gaza to arrive in South Africa. The first, which landed late last month, brought 176 refugees.
Sooliman said family members of the new arrivals had informed Gift of the Givers that their relatives were aboard the second flight from Gaza.
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