Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Ronald Lamola has intensified criticism over the circumstances surrounding the arrival of a group of Palestinians in South Africa Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Ronald Lamola has intensified criticism over the circumstances surrounding the arrival of a group of Palestinians in South Africa, warning that foreign actors manipulated the country’s visa-free regime with Palestine to engineer an unauthorised mass entry. The incident, involving a South African-chartered aircraft carrying 153Palestinianswhich remained grounded on the tarmac for more than 12 hours, forced government into a humanitarian intervention as officials worked to verify the passengers and establish how the flight was organised. Speaking on MacG’s Podcast and Chill, Lamola said the group had made use of South Africa’s visa-free arrangement with Palestine and that intelligence pointed to external interference.
“They exploited a loophole because of the situation inPalestine. We have a visa-free regime with Palestine. So, they exploited that loophole through some players that we suspect involve some of those that are linked to the Israel regime,” he said.
Lamola says SA was forced into humanitarian rescue after visa-free regime was abused. Lamola stressed that although the aircraft had valid landing rights, no authorisation was given for a mass arrival of foreign nationals, a requirement under international norms when large groups are transported. “That was a South African plane.
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They had the landing rights and everything and the people. But with such things when we want to bring people en masse, there must be an agreement between the two governments. There was no such agreement,” he added.
Lamola defended Home Affairs Minister Dr Leon Schreiber’s initial call to halt entry, saying the irregularities justified precaution. But as conditions on board deteriorated, the government was forced to step in. “The minister of Home Affairs made the call, but we supported him because it was clear that now, we have to act on humanitarian grounds.” Ultimately, Dirco and Home Affairs agreed to process the passengers, allowing those who wished to depart to do so, and permitting others to remain subject to South African immigration law. “We ended up agreeing that we should make a humanitarian intervention and process them through immigration and those who wanted to leave left and those that wanted to follow our laws would do so.”
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