Ryanair drops Afrikaans test after backlash from South Africans
Ryanair has dropped a controversial test in the Afrikaans
language aimed at identifying passengers travelling on fake South African
passports in the UK.
The quiz contained questions such as what South Africa’s international dialling code is, what is its capital city and who is the current president of the country.
Anyone who failed was refused travel and refunded the cost of their ticket. Ryanair originally defended the test saying it received a fine for every passenger found to have travelled on a fake passport.
More than a week after the controversy blew up, Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary has said the airline has changed its policy.
READ: Dirco investigating claims of Afrikaans quiz on Ryanair flights
"Our team issued a test in Afrikaans of 12 simple questions,"
"They have no difficulty completing that. But we didn't think it was appropriate either. So we have ended the Afrikaans test, because it doesn't make any sense."
In a statement sent to the BBC last week, Ryanair said it had to carry out the test because of substantially increased cases of fraudulent South African passports being used to enter the UK.
