The Border Management Authority(BMA) revealed that 153 Palestinian refugees arrived in South Africa on Thursday morning without customary departure stamps in their passports.
The desperate Palestinian refugees told the South African immigration officials that Israel refused to stamp their passports as proof of their departure and did not know that their plane was heading to South Africa.
“The Commissioner of the Border Management Authority(BMA), Dr Michael Masiapato, has confirmed that 153 Palestinian travellers arrived at OR Tambo International Airport at about 08:15 this morning, 13 November 2025, through a charter flight from Global Airways from Kenya. During the standard interview process conducted by BMA immigration officers, the group did not indicate their duration of stay in the country or the address of their accommodation in South Africa. The travellers also did not have the customary departure stamps in their passports,” said Border Management Authority statement.
The BMA clarified that the Palestinian travellers did not shown any interest to apply for asylum after their failed the immigration test, up until Gift of the Givers volunteered to organise accommodation for them while are in the country.
“Following their failure to pass the immigration test and given that none of the travellers expressed an intention to apply for asylum, they were initially denied entry. However, the Ministry of Home Affairs subsequently received correspondence from Gift of the Givers, expressing their commitment to accommodate the travellers during their stay," added BMA statement.
The BMA also clarified that some of the Palestinian travellers were allowed to continue with their journey to the destinations of their choice, and then those remain behind will be allowed to be in the country for period of three months.
"Following this verification and intervention, the travellers have been admitted this evening. By the time of admission, 23 of the 153 travellers had already transferred from South Africa to their ultimate destinations. Therefore, only the remaining 130 passengers were processed into the country, under the care of Gift of the Givers.
Given that Palestinians are eligible for 90-day visa-exempt travel to South Africa, they have been processed as per normal and will be required to adhere to all conditions of entry. The BMA will continue to strictly uphold the legal and regulatory frameworks of the Republic of South Africa," the BMA statement concluded.
These refugees are from the war-torn Palestinian enclave of Gaza which has been flattened to a rubble by Israeli Defence Force(IDF) for more than two years, in that period, Israeli government brutally murdered more than 69,000 innocent civilians - majority of them are women and children.
Israel did not just only murder Gazans through bombs but blocked any humanitarian aid to enter in that enclave because wanted to ensure that the civilians are also killed by starvation.