DUBLIN (Reuters) – Ryanair is requiring South African passengers to show their nationality earlier than travelling by finishing a take a look at in Afrikaans, a language utilized by simply by 12% of the inhabitants that has lengthy been recognized with apartheid and the white minority.

Europe’s largest airline by passenger numbers, which doesn’t function flights to and from South Africa, mentioned it required any UK-bound passengers from the nation to fill within the “easy questionnaire” because of what it described as a excessive prevalence of fraudulent South African passports.

“If they’re unable to finish this questionnaire, they are going to be refused journey and issued with a full refund,” a spokesman for the Irish airline mentioned.

The UK Excessive Fee in South Africa mentioned on Twitter (NYSE:) that the take a look at was not a British authorities requirement to enter the UK.

Ryanair mentioned it might apply to any South African passport holder flying to Britain from one other a part of Europe on the provider. The airline didn’t instantly reply to a question about why it might apply to these routes, given Britain says it isn’t a requirement.

Afrikaans is the third most spoken of 11 official languages in South Africa, utilized by 12% of the 58 million folks within the nation. It was thought of the official language till the tip of apartheid in 1994.

The language was born of Dutch settlement in South Africa within the seventeenth century, and has lengthy been recognized with racial classification and related to the ideology of apartheid which was primarily enforced and propagated by the white minority Nationwide Occasion from 1948.

Its dominance below apartheid was seen as an emblem of inequality imposed on earlier generations by restrictions on the place folks may reside, work, go to high school and personal land.