South Africa claims visa loophole exploited by Israel-linked group

(MENAFN) South Africa’s international relations minister, Ronald Lamola, has accused an Israel-linked network of exploiting the country’s immigration rules to facilitate the unauthorized entry of a large group of Palestinians, according to general accounts of his remarks.

The controversy unfolded after a South African-chartered flight carrying 153 Palestinian passengers was left on the tarmac for more than twelve hours while officials attempted to verify identities and determine how the trip had been arranged. Authorities eventually intervened on humanitarian grounds as conditions on board deteriorated.

Speaking on a podcast, Lamola claimed the organizers took advantage of South Africa’s visa-free policy for Palestinian travelers and that intelligence assessments pointed to outside involvement.

”They exploited a loophole because of the situation in Palestine. We have a visa-free regime with Palestine. So, they exploited that loophole through some players that we suspect involve some of those that are linked to the Israel regime,” he said.

Lamola emphasized that although the aircraft had legitimate landing clearance, there was no authorization for such a large, coordinated arrival of foreign nationals — a standard requirement when transporting groups en masse.

”That was a South African plane. They had the landing rights and everything and the people. But with such things, when we want to bring people en masse, there must be an agreement between the two governments. There was no such agreement,” he added.

He defended the decision by Home Affairs Minister Dr. Leon Schreiber to initially halt entry, saying the irregularities warranted caution. But once passengers’ wellbeing became a concern, the government opted to intervene.

”The minister of Home Affairs made the call, but we supported him because it was clear that now, we have to act on humanitarian grounds.”

Officials from international relations and home affairs ultimately agreed to process the travelers through immigration controls, allowing those who wished to leave to do so, while others could remain if they complied with South African law.

“We ended up agreeing that we should make a humanitarian intervention and process them through immigration, and those who wanted to leave left and those that wanted to follow our laws would do so.”

All passengers underwent screening, and humanitarian support was provided during the process.

However, Schreiber later announced that intelligence agencies had identified an organized pattern of abuse of the visa exemption, allegedly involving external actors attempting to relocate Gazans under the cover of short-term visits. As a result, the 90-day visa waiver for Palestinian passport holders was withdrawn.

“Following investigations and recommendations by national intelligence structures and consultations within the Security Cluster – which confirmed the deliberate and ongoing abuse of the 90-day visa exemption for Palestinian ordinary passport holders by Israeli actors linked to ‘voluntary emigration’ efforts for residents of the Gaza Strip – Home Affairs has withdrawn the exemption,” Schreiber said.

He noted that limited-duration visa waivers are typically intended to facilitate tourism and short trips — not large-scale population movements.

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