enca - 2 month ago

Questions mount over who brought Palestinians to SA Estelle.Bronkhorst Tue, 12/09/2025 - 12:43 JOHANNESBURG - South Africa has withdrawn the 90-day visa exemption for Palestinian passport holders.The move comes after two recent chartered flights brought a group of 153 refugees into the country.Authorities say the arrivals lacked proper documents, exit stamps, and confirmed travel plans.An analyst now warns that the chartered flights may form part of a broader effort to relocate Palestinians.Aimée-Noël Mbiyozo, a senior research consultant on migration at the Institute for Security Studies, says the decision to withdraw the exemption is disappointing.“South Africa definitely didn’t start the problem, but revoking the 90-day exemption shows it is taking a security-first position,” she said. She added that, from a humanitarian law perspective, there is concern that if Israel is forcibly sending people to destinations unknown to them, it could amount to ethnic cleansing.“South Africa was thrust into a position where it had to balance these issues. We are not going to see Gaza ethnically cleansed one charter flight at a time to South Africa,” she said, adding that a lot of people will be watching how the country responds. It is a test of law and collective response, she said.

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