Outrage ! Ryanair has come under fire for requiring South African passengers to complete a test in 'Afrikaans' before boarding .

The low-cost Irish airline Ryanair has come under fire from passengers and South African language authorities for requiring South African passengers to complete a test in Afrikaans before boarding.

• Ryanair says, it's a measure to curb fraudulent South African passports.
• Test in Afrikaans is being seen in the context of racial profiling. 
• Singling out  Afrikaans language also reopens apartheid-era racial wounds.

South Africa's language authorities have come heavily on the 'test in Afrikaans' required by Ryanair for all South Africans before they can fly to Britain.

Afrikaans language is used by about 12% of South Africans as their first language and the country boasts ten other official ones, including the more widely spoken Zulu and Xhosa.

The Afrikaans language is historically linked to racism and black enslavement as it was constructed by white colonial settlers of Dutch, Germanic, and French origins.

With this being an already sensitive topic in South Africa , many perceived Ryanair’s decision as "discriminatory and unacceptable.”

Ryanair says,

“Due to the high prevalence of fraudulent South African passports, we require passengers travelling to the UK to fill out a simple questionnaire issued in Afrikaans. If they are unable to complete this questionnaire, they will be refused travel and issued with a full refund.”

With this statement , the Irish airline defended its new test regulation by stressing that it is meant to help identify those traveling on fraudulent South African passports.

On the other hand , the CEO of the Pan South African Language Board , Lance Schulz , says the board has expressed its displeasure with the Irish Carrier’s  Afrikaans test because many South Africans do not understand or practice the language.

“Our view is that the decision is quite reckless and reminiscent of the apartheid systemic subjugation of speakers of other languages, mainly black people. And in essence our concern is that it creates racial as well as linguistic discrimination."

"We believe that not just is it in contravening our constitutional democracy as well as linguistic diversity, but it’s an ignorance of the UN Declaration of Human Rights,” he said.

The context was highlighted on May 27th after a traveller with a South African passport and a UK residence permit was asked to answer two-pages in Afrikaans before flying from Portugal to London.

On this , the passenger expressed his outrage, “I asked for an English version but was told the test was only in Afrikaans … I was told if I didn’t get 100% I wouldn’t be allowed to fly. Only after writing the test and having my answers checked was I given my boarding pass.”

Meanwhile , the CEO of the Afrikaans Language Council , Conrad Steenkamp, has written to Ryanair to explain about their language test. He says many South Africans would fail a test given in Zulu or one of the other official languages. Steenkamp says he hopes that Ryanair will see the error of its ways.

“Thus far Ryanair has not responded to us about our comments. We advised them to, one: immediately stop using the profiling ; two: they need to start apologizing to people. People were turned back from flights as a result of this and they are in serious jeopardy, this could end up in court cases,” he said.

Contrary to Ryanair's methods of testing people “prove” their South African citizenship , the UK High Commission in South Africa highlighted that “the test is not a UK government requirement.”