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FILE | Plane that has landed at an airport
A chartered flight carrying Palestinians seeking refugee status in South Africa has landed at Johannesburg’s O.R Tambo Airport.
Gift of the Givers facilitated the humanitarian effort with other civil society partners and will provide further assistance, legal and medical care.
The Border Management Authority acted in keeping with their mandate not to allow passengers without an exit stamp to disembark.
According to Gift of the Givers, Israel deliberately did not stamp the passports of the refugees to exacerbate their suffering in a foreign country.
But Minister of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) Ronald Lamola and the Home Affairs Department intervened and waived this requirement.
Gift of the Givers say the assistance of government is in keeping with South Africa’s policy of standing with Palestine by taking Israel to the International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Court and garnering a boycott of that country at Bogota.
Gift of the Givers Founder Dr Imtiaz Sooliman says the organisation with other civil society partners will provide humanitarian assistance to the refugees.
” I got hold of Zane Dangor, he is in Canada. I just spoke to the minister and other people in DIRCO, I spoke to the Border Management Authority other people involved in this issue and it’s about the stamp. And now this afternoon the minster is writing to the Minister of Home Affairs because it is his portfolio to wave the stamp requirement so that these people could come into the airport and come to the country and seek asylum.”
