‘British press lying about UBC stats’ – DHA

HOME Affairs has refuted claims
that significant numbers of
inbound tourists were prevented
from flying to South Africa over the
festive season as a result of the
controversial UBC requirements.
The regulations came under heavy
fire in the international press during
the Christmas holidays. UK-based
newspaper, The Independent, reported
that in the busiest week of the year
for British holidaymakers heading for
South Africa, an average of 10 families
a day were being denied boarding
when they turned up at Heathrow.
“Newspapers are just making these
facts up,” maintains Mayihlome
Tshwete, spokesperson for the DHA.
He says the DHA had followed up on
these reports but that the statistics
could not be confirmed by either the
newspapers or the airlines.
When asked whether or not
passengers were still being regularly
denied boarding at Heathrow on the
basis of not carrying an unabridged
birth certificate, Virgin Atlantic and
SAA could not comment, while British
Airways said it did not keep records of
why customers do not board flights.
Virgin Atlantic said, however, that the
airline had not experienced any major
disruptions thus far.
The airlines also did not comment on
whether or not the SA government was
contacted each time a passenger was
denied boarding.
Mayihlome says the number of
travellers from the UK to South Africa
has actually increased by 3% for the
period between November 1 and
December 23, 2015 compared with
the same period last year.
He points out that during this period,
82 772 British travellers visited
South Africa, compared with 79 998
in 2014.
He added that the number of children
travelling from the UK to South Africa
also increased, from 8 508 in 2014
to 8 745 in 2015 during the same
period.
Mayihlome says, compared with
the thousands of travellers who
came through immigration during the
affected period, 10 denied passengers
was just a small number. “If we only
had 20 travellers and 10 were denied
entry it would be different. But, we’re
talking about 10 out of more than
80 000.”
The DHA has also revealed that
the revised visa rules, which were
announced in October, are not likely
to come into effect before the end of
January.
Mayihlome says it requires time to
effect the announced changes. The
changes stipulate that inbound tourists
travelling with minors will no longer be
‘required’ to produce an unabridged
birth certificate but will be ‘strongly
advised’ to have the document.
“The government needs to create the
proper legal instrument to effect these
changes in wording and this takes
time,” says Mayihlome, adding that
a task team had been appointed to
implement the changes.
“We’re expecting to hear back from
the task team by the end of the
month.”