South Africa to investigate unexpected Palestinian refugees

South Africa granted entry to 130 Palestinians without travel papers after initially barring them but said it will examine accusations that an unregistered organisation arranged their trip “in an irregular and irresponsible manner”.

South Africa has long supported Palestinian aspirations to statehood and filed a case against Israel at the International Court of Justice in 2023 accusing it of genocide in the Gaza war. Israel has denied the accusations.

A group of 153 Palestinians arrived at Johannesburg airport on a chartered Global Airways flight from Kenya on Thursday without departure stamps, return tickets or details of accommodation, according to border authorities.

They said none of the Palestinians had applied for asylum, leading to their initial denial of entry. It was not clear where their journey originated.

Palestinians in Israeli-blockaded Gaza or the Israeli-occupied West Bank cannot easily go abroad.

Humanitarian group Gift of the Givers intervened to offer accommodation and support and authorities then cleared 130 members of the group for entry under a standard 90-day visa exemption, while 23 had already departed for other destinations.

“The Palestinians had no idea where they were bundled off to, only when in Kenya did they realise they were coming to South Africa.”

“Some had visas for Canada, Australia and Malaysia, they were eventually permitted to leave for those countries,” said Imtiaz Sooliman, chair and founder of Gift of the Givers.

Sooliman said the remaining options in the meantime were for them to “move to a country of their choice if that country accepts them, have a temporary short-stay visa for South Africa.”

“A visitor’s visa for 90 days which can be renewed several times, a student visa for study purposes, or apply for asylum.”

Allegations of irregularities

South Africa’s interior ministry said the Palestinian embassy had told it the group was deceived and charged money by an unspecified unregistered organisation, which later “attempted to disown any responsibility once complications arose.

“We obviously need to look at the origins (of the 130 Palestinians’ journey), where it started, the reason why they’ve been brought here,” President Cyril Ramaphosa told reporters.

“But … out of compassion, and because they are a people that we as South Africa have raised our hands to support, we felt that we should accept them,” he said.

Ramaphosa said South African intelligence agencies, the Department of Home Affairs, and the Department of International Relations and Cooperation were now assessing the situation.

“We are going to do a proper evaluation and see what the future portends,” he added.

• Reporting by Sfundo Parakozov.