By Hassan Isilow
A plane transporting more than 100 Palestinian refugees seeking asylum in South Africa landed Thursday morning at OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg, but its clearance has been delayed, a humanitarian group said in a statement.
Gift of the Givers Foundation said the Palestinians have been kept waiting for several hours to get off the plane because Israel refused to give them exit stamps in their passports.
‘‘The (South African) Border Management Authority acted in keeping with their mandate not to allow passengers without an exit stamp to disembark,’’ Imtiaz Sooliman, chairman and founder of the Gift of the Givers Foundation, said in a statement sent to Anadolu.
Sooliman claimed that “Israel deliberately did not stamp the passports of these poor people to exacerbate their suffering in a foreign country.’’
He thanked South African Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola and his Director General Zane Dangor for coming to the rescue of the stranded Palestinian refugees.
Sooliman said Lamola took the initiative to write a letter to the Ministry of Home Affairs, which is expected to waive the requirement of the exit stamp to allow the Palestinians in.
This is the second plane transporting Palestinians fleeing the genocide in Gaza to South Africa.
The first plane landed late last month at OR Tambo airport carrying 176 Palestinians.
Sooliman said family members of the Palestinians living in South Africa told the Gift of the Givers Foundation that their relatives were coming on a second plane from Gaza.
South African government officials have not been able to comment on the arrival of the Palestinian refugees or delays regarding their clearance.
They are expected to hold a media briefing or issue a statement later Thursday.