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Erroll

Ex-pats have to pass a test to enter UK??

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I don't know if this belongs here or in the "Joke of the day" thread.

UK accused of blocking South Africans at airports unless they pass Afrikaans test

 

 

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Several South African passport holders who attempted to fly to and from the United Kingdom (UK) claim they had to pass a general knowledge quiz in Afrikaans before they could board their planes.

 

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34 minutes ago, wolfriverjoe said:

I'm going to want to see it in something more reputable than "My Broadband " before taking it seriously. 

How about news24.com? 

Ryanair told News24 on Friday that it had a responsibility to "ensure that passengers are correctly documented for travel to their destination", in terms of Section 40 of the UK Immigration and Asylum Act 1999.

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(edited)
50 minutes ago, Erroll said:

Oh ok, so it’s Ryanair being total dickheads. That actually does make sense.

Edited by jakee

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(edited)
14 hours ago, Erroll said:

Never realised that Ryanair had a vested interest in who came to the UK - the whole scenario smells of clickbait kak to me. If News24 are run along the same lines as 99.999% of other media outlets, then it is BS.

Edited by Bokdrol
alteration to text

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2 hours ago, Bokdrol said:

Never realised that Ryanair had a vested interest in who came to the UK - the whole scenario smells of clickbait kak to me. If News24 are run along the same lines as 99.999% of other media outlets, then it is BS.

Airlines do have a responsibility to ensure that the people on their planes are who they say they are, for a number of reasons. But Ryanair are an absolute shit show of an organisation from top to bottom and it kinda figures that someone in their management has taken it upon themselves to institute this bizarre ‘test’.

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4 hours ago, jakee said:

Airlines do have a responsibility to ensure that the people on their planes are who they say they are, for a number of reasons. But Ryanair are an absolute shit show of an organisation from top to bottom and it kinda figures that someone in their management has taken it upon themselves to institute this bizarre ‘test’.

If an airline delivers an illegal immigrant, they are obliged to immediately fly them back to the country where the flight originated. The airline often gets fined. They also get stuck with the cost of the return air fare. Granted, the airline's lawyers may try to bill the naughty illegal immigrant ... but you all know how much I admire and respect lawyers ...

Funny that the woman in this story did not speak Afrikaans. All the South Africans and Rhodesians that I have met all speak the basics of Afrikaans, even if their mother-tongue is English or Xhosa.

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This story reminds me of a trick used by the Dutch Resistance during World War 2. Many of their pass-words had uniquely-Dutch pronunciations. Since few Germans had the throat muscles needed to pronounce the words properly, infiltrators were quickly identified by ear.

Modern Dutch and Afrikaans are based upon the same old Dutch roots. ... kind of like the similarities between the modern Quebec French dialect (joual) and old-Parisian French ... merely separated by 300 years.

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36 minutes ago, riggerrob said:

This story reminds me of a trick used by the Dutch Resistance during World War 2. Many of their pass-words had uniquely-Dutch pronunciations. Since few Germans had the throat muscles needed to pronounce the words properly, infiltrators were quickly identified by ear.

Modern Dutch and Afrikaans are based upon the same old Dutch roots. ... kind of like the similarities between the modern Quebec French dialect (joual) and old-Parisian French ... merely separated by 300 years.

The idea dates to Biblical times:

Judges 12:2–6

English Standard Version

2 And Jephthah said to them, “I and my people had a great dispute with the Ammonites, and when I called you, you did not save me from their hand.

3 And when I saw that you would not save me, I took my life in my hand and crossed over against the Ammonites, and the Lord gave them into my hand. Why then have you come up to me this day to fight against me?” 

4 Then Jephthah gathered all the men of Gilead and fought with Ephraim. And the men of Gilead struck Ephraim, because they said, “You are fugitives of Ephraim, you Gileadites, in the midst of Ephraim and Manasseh.” 

5 And the Gileadites captured rthe fords of the Jordan against the Ephraimites. And when any of the fugitives of Ephraim said, “Let me go over,” the men of Gilead said to him, “Are you an Ephraimite?” When he said, “No,” 

6 they said to him, “Then say Shibboleth,” and he said, “Sibboleth,” for he could not pronounce it right. Then they seized him and slaughtered him at the fords of the Jordan. At that time 42,000 of the Ephraimites fell.

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6 hours ago, kallend said:

The idea dates to Biblical times:

Judges 12:2–6

English Standard Version

2 And Jephthah said to them, “I and my people had a great dispute with the Ammonites, and when I called you, you did not save me from their hand.

3 And when I saw that you would not save me, I took my life in my hand and crossed over against the Ammonites, and the Lord gave them into my hand. Why then have you come up to me this day to fight against me?” 

4 Then Jephthah gathered all the men of Gilead and fought with Ephraim. And the men of Gilead struck Ephraim, because they said, “You are fugitives of Ephraim, you Gileadites, in the midst of Ephraim and Manasseh.” 

5 And the Gileadites captured rthe fords of the Jordan against the Ephraimites. And when any of the fugitives of Ephraim said, “Let me go over,” the men of Gilead said to him, “Are you an Ephraimite?” When he said, “No,” 

6 they said to him, “Then say Shibboleth,” and he said, “Sibboleth,” for he could not pronounce it right. Then they seized him and slaughtered him at the fords of the Jordan. At that time 42,000 of the Ephraimites fell.

Let the slaughtering begin...

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4 hours ago, squiffy said:

Seems to have legs...

Indeed.

We are planning an extensive trip to Ireland, The Isle of Man and the UK soon and while I do not foresee an issue with the silly test itself should I have to do it, I still believe this is bizarre and discriminatory. These are not Biblical times.

On a somewhat related note:-

Mayhem predicted for travel this summer

This of a lot more concern.

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2 hours ago, Erroll said:

Indeed.

We are planning an extensive trip to Ireland, The Isle of Man and the UK soon and while I do not foresee an issue with the silly test itself should I have to do it, I still believe this is bizarre and discriminatory. These are not Biblical times.

On a somewhat related note:-

Mayhem predicted for travel this summer

This of a lot more concern.

Would be interesting to hear your feedback from your trip. I am married to a South African who recently returned home to the UK , seamlessly, from Cape Town - hence my earlier opinion that this is media driven BS. The travel chaos thingie is real. It'll be more of an issue during the summer holidays (late June/July/August) when many families are trying get away to catch the European sun which can be so elusive here in the UK. 

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16 minutes ago, Bokdrol said:

returned home to the UK , seamlessly, from Cape Town

I doubt that she used Ryanair.

 

18 minutes ago, Bokdrol said:

It'll be more of an issue during the summer holidays (late June/July/August)

We will be travelling during July & August... (If we get our Visas in time!)

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13 hours ago, riggerrob said:

If an airline delivers an illegal immigrant, they are obliged to immediately fly them back to the country where the flight originated. The airline often gets fined. They also get stuck with the cost of the return air fare. Granted, the airline's lawyers may try to bill the naughty illegal immigrant ... but you all know how much I admire and respect lawyers ...

Funny that the woman in this story did not speak Afrikaans. All the South Africans and Rhodesians that I have met all speak the basics of Afrikaans, even if their mother-tongue is English or Xhosa.

As an ex Rhodesian serviceman, educated in South Africa (RSA) and an Afrikaans speaker (of sorts) in my opinion you are largely correct on the Afrikaans aspect.  Although many Rhodesians had a smattering of Afrikaans, the  local slang/patois which had migrated up from RSA had an amalgam of African/Afrikaans and English (called chilapalapa or fanagalo and initially used by overseers to communicate with the migrant labour on the mines in RSA, where men from dozens of different ethnicities and languages were employed) and which most Rhodesians of all creeds could use to communicate with each other. Afrikaans was not taught in Rhodesian schools but there were communities (e.g. Enkeldoorn which is Afrikaans for Single/Lone Thorn) where Afrikaans was spoken as the first language. Most Rhodesians seldom if ever said Yes, it was always Ja, your Brother was your Boet,  Hello was Hoesit (short for hoe gaan dit) and so on. Rhodesian military slang, especially R.L.I. was unique and also used a some Afrikaans. Here Endeth The Lesson (just to keep the Biblical context going lol).  

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2 hours ago, Erroll said:

Indeed.

We are planning an extensive trip to Ireland, The Isle of Man and the UK soon and while I do not foresee an issue with the silly test itself should I have to do it, I still believe this is bizarre and discriminatory.

Just don’t fly Ryanair then.

 

I mean, don’t fly Ryanair anyway - they are a terrible, terrible company who don’t care about their passengers.

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On 6/4/2022 at 10:21 AM, riggerrob said:

This story reminds me of a trick used by the Dutch Resistance during World War 2. Many of their pass-words had uniquely-Dutch pronunciations. Since few Germans had the throat muscles needed to pronounce the words properly, infiltrators were quickly identified by ear.

Dutch and German pronunciations are pretty similar, specially for Germans from more southern areas. Can't think of too many words in Dutch a German would have trouble pronouncing.

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