A meeting of Irish ministers is scheduled to discuss ending South Africans’ visa-free travel.
Discussions on the matter are scheduled for this Thursday, May 2. The action is a component of a strategy meant to strengthen controls over asylum claims.
This decision is made in the context of growing concerns about the number of people from Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of the Congo who are going to Ireland using South African passports in order to apply for asylum.
The trend is a “relatively recent phenomenon,” according to Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris, who underlined the need of acting.
As of right now, only Georgia, Kosovo, Russia, and the Republic of Ireland are European countries that grant South Africans admission without a visa.
Notwithstanding the hazards associated with Covid-19, visa-free travel to Ireland has only been in place for a mere three years.
The South African Department of Home Affairs and the Irish embassy were contacted for comment, but at the time of writing, no response was received.
Given the history of occurrences involving people from Bangladesh and Pakistan utilizing forged credentials, this development highlights continued worries about the security of South African passports.
Security measures and visa restrictions for specific transits were implemented as a result of increased scrutiny of these instances by international authorities and airlines.
As to the most recent Henley Passport Index, South Africans are still able to travel to 108 countries, including Kiribati, without a visa. Nonetheless, visas are still needed for some prominent emigration destinations like the USA, Australia, and the United Kingdom.
