ANTI-RACISM campaigners have slammed Ryanair’s “discriminatory” decision to force South Africans to take a UK-entry test in Afrikaans — the official language of the former apartheid state. 

Rights group Actsa, the successor organisation to the Anti-Apartheid Movement in Britain, has written to Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary demanding he immediately withdraw the “appalling” questionnaire and issue an apology. 

The budget airline was forced to defend itself after it emerged earlier this week that South Africans were being asked to fill out a test in Afrikaans in order to board Ryanair flights to the UK. It said this was being done to tackle the use of fraudulent passports. 

But critics have slammed the decision to make the general knowledge test only available in the third most used language in the country — and one which has links to apartheid-era South Africa. 

Those who are unable to complete the test will be refused travel and issued with a full refund, Ryanair said. 

Afrikaans is one of 11 official languages used in South Africa, with the most common being Zulu and Xhosa. 

“Ryanair’s focus on Afrikaans is racially discriminatory,” Actsa said in a statement on Tuesday. “It cannot be forgotten that Afrikaans was the preferred language of the racist, apartheid state.” 

The statement also highlights the role Afrikaans played in the massacre of schoolchildren in the Soweto township on June 16 1976 by apartheid police for protesting against Afrikaans as the official language of tuition. 

“Ryanair imposing this discriminatory process days before the commemoration of the massacre of schoolchildren is unbelievably offensive and insensitive,” it states. 

Actsa has also written to Home Secretary Priti Patel urging her to press Ryaniar to pull the questionnaire, which the British High Commission confirmed was not a UK requirement. 

A Ryanair spokesperson said: “Airlines operating to the UK face Home Office fines of £2,000 per passenger for anyone who travel illegally to the UK on a fraudulent passport or visa. This is why Ryanair must ensure that all passengers (especially South African citizens) travel on a valid SA passport/visa as required by UK Immigration.”