South African authorities are facing heavy criticism after they held more than 150 Palestinians, including a woman who was nine months pregnant, on a plane for about 12 hours because of problems with their travel documents.
A pastor who was allowed to meet the passengers while they were stuck on the plane said it was extremely hot and that children were screaming and crying.
The Palestinians landed on a charter plane at Johannesburg’s OR Tambo airport on Thursday morning after a stopover in Nairobi, Kenya, South Africa’s border management authority said in a statement.
The Palestinian passengers’ documents did not have exit stamps from Israeli authorities, did not indicate how long they would be staying in South Africa and did not provide local addresses, leading immigration authorities to deny them entry, the statement said.
The 153 passengers, including families and children, were allowed to leave the plane on Thursday night after South Africa’s home affairs ministry intervened and a local nongovernmental organisation, Gift of the Givers, offered to accommodate them. Border officials said 23 passengers had since travelled on to other countries, leaving 130 in South Africa.
The founder of Gift of the Givers, Imtiaz Sooliman, said it was the second plane carrying Palestinians to land in South Africa in the past two weeks and that the passengers themselves said they did not know where they were going. He said both planes were believed to be carrying people from war-torn Gaza.
It was not immediately clear how the charter plane was organised, where exactly it came from and why the passengers were able to leave Israel without the proper documentation, as South African authorities said.
The pastor, Nigel Branken, who was let on to the plane while it was on the tarmac told the South African broadcaster SABC that many of the Palestinians now intended to claim asylum in South Africa.
South Africa has long been a supporter of the Palestinian cause and the treatment of the passengers has sparked anger.
“It’s dire,” Branken told SABC in an interview from the aircraft on Thursday as he described the conditions. “When I came on to the plane it was excruciatingly hot. There were lots of children just sweating and screaming and crying.
“I do not believe this is what South Africa is about. South Africa should be letting these people into the airport at the very least and letting them apply for asylum. This is their basic fundamental right guaranteed in our constitution.”