Mysterious plane carrying Gaza refugees lands in South Africa • FRANCE 24 English

Now, it’s already being called the mystery of the Palestinian plane. South Africa has allowed more than 150 Palestinian passengers coming from Gaza to disembark after they were kept on the plane for almost 12 hours by the country’s border police. South African President Sabusa said there was an investigation to uncover how the Palestinians came to South Africa via a stop over in Nairobi in Kenya. Even though they do not have the necessary documents and papers, these are people from a strife torn, a war torn country. And out of compassion, out of empathy, we must receive them and be able to deal with the situation that they are facing. And it does seem like they were being, you know, flushed out. We will get the details later, but from a humanitarian point of view, we could not return them from whence they have come. And let’s try to find out more about the story with Unice Mason. She’s she’s joining us live from Cape Town. Unice, good to have you. What do you have for us? Good evening, Clarice. Yes. So all of the passengers according to the Department of Home Affairs hold Palestinian passports uh which grants them 90-day visa exempt access to South Africa which of course is subject to security and verification processes. But when they arrived, the people from Palestinia when they arrived at the the J Hannesburg airport uh without departure stamps or return tickets or or details of accommodation, the border management authority did not allow them to disembark. Now, after the intervention of Home Affairs, even the president and the humanitarian organization Gift of the Givers, the refugees were disembarked like you’ve mentioned only after 12 hours. Um and they are provided for by the gift of the givers at the moment at an undisclosed address in Johannesburg. And according to home affairs, none of the refugees uh at this stage have applied for asylum uh in the country. Unice. A lot of questions remain unanswered. And yet it’s not the first plane bringing Palestinian passengers to South Africa, isn’t it? No, it’s not. Uh this is the second flight arriving in South Africa carrying Palestinian uh people. The first flight arrived on the 28th of October and Gift of the Givers confirmed that that plane carried 176 people. Now they were all allowed to disembark without any challenges while they too had no exit stamps or what they call departure stamps from the Israeli government. But the question everyone wants to answer of course is who arranges these flights and the embassy of the state of Palestine shed some light uh on on why the passengers do not have the correct documents and according to them the people were exploited by an unregistered and misleading organization. Now, it’s understood that the organization would take money from people who want to leave war torn Gaza, but then facilitate their transport in an irregular and irresponsible manner. And the people on yesterday’s flight did not know they were going to South Africa. They only found that out when they stopped in Kenya. Um so, um it’s it’s still not clear who this organization is. In South Africa, like you’ve mentioned, President Ramapora said that the matter is being evaluated by intelligence agencies and all the relevant government departments. Unice Mas live from Cape Town. Thank you for following that story for

South Africa’s intelligence services are investigating who was behind a chartered plane that landed in Johannesburg with more than 150 Palestinians from war-ravaged Gaza who did not have proper travel documents and were held onboard on the tarmac for around 12 hours as a result, the country’s president said Friday. Details by FRANCE 24 correspondent in Cape Town, Eunice Masson.
#SouthAfrica #Gaza #Palestinian

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31 comments

  1. You should accept all the illegal Africans being deported from Europe then. They should’ve been flown back home, they know how they got there, this will make it easy for them to cross to Europe

  7. South Africa's shameful country. while they are killing and beating another African in their country but got refugees from the middle east. Shame on you South Africa.

  14. South Africa just made the biggest mistake in history.
    They are going to destroy your country with their radical Islamic beliefs.
    Give them just ten years, and you people will learn the hard way.
    Pity you South Africans.

  22. Good luck a studies shows before what happened to Palestinian refugees in West guess what they do they committed all henouis crime grape and all sort, there's reason why other Arab countries don't accept them, they are curse people by all the Innocent Jewish blood they shed, these people are curse everywhere they go poverty and chaos follows them

  30. SOUTH AFRICA Women children elders be SAFE 🙏💪
    You should accept Christians experiencing Persecution. Not Terro** Isla* supporters!

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