{"id":769911,"date":"2024-04-29T12:40:02","date_gmt":"2024-04-29T10:40:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=769911"},"modified":"2024-04-29T12:40:10","modified_gmt":"2024-04-29T10:40:10","slug":"visa-free-travel-to-ireland-could-be-ending-for-south-africa-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/769911\/visa-free-travel-to-ireland-could-be-ending-for-south-africa-report\/","title":{"rendered":"Visa-free travel to Ireland could be ending for South Africa: report"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Ministers in Ireland will reportedly be discussing a move to end visa-free travel for South Africa, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/politics\/2024\/04\/25\/end-of-visa-free-travel-from-south-africa-to-be-discussed-by-ministers\/\"><strong>according to the Irish Times<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The paper reported that the Irish cabinet would likely discuss the move this Thursday (2 May) as part of a strategy to clamp down on asylum applications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Citing figures from the Irish Department of Justice, the paper said that 198 people have applied for asylum in Ireland on South African passports &#8211; but there have been increased instances of Zimbabweans and people from the Democratic Republic of Congo travelling on these passports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris was quoted as saying that this was a &#8220;relatively recent phenomenon&#8221; that required more action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Republic of Ireland is one of a handful of European countries that South Africans can travel to without needing a visa, and the only &#8216;western&#8217; European country. The others being Georgia, Kosovo and Russia, all on the eastern bloc. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Visa-free travel to Ireland has only been in effect for about three years since the last time it was stopped due to <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/trending\/476780\/ireland-stops-visa-free-travel-for-south-africans-indefinitely\/\"><strong>Covid-19 related risks<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>BusinessTech reached out to the Irish embassy and the South African Department of Home Affairs for comment, but did not receive a response by the time of publication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-businesstech wp-block-embed-businesstech\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"ClQMGqGs2f\"><a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/741589\/south-africans-can-now-visit-108-countries-visa-free-with-one-new-destination-added\/\">South Africans can now visit 108 countries visa-free \u2013 with one new destination added<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);\" title=\"&#8220;South Africans can now visit 108 countries visa-free \u2013 with one new destination added&#8221; &#8212; BusinessTech\" src=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/741589\/south-africans-can-now-visit-108-countries-visa-free-with-one-new-destination-added\/embed\/#?secret=iPAwQxDzu1#?secret=ClQMGqGs2f\" data-secret=\"ClQMGqGs2f\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Foreigners travelling on South African passports is not a new occurrence, and the security of the local passport has come under question in recent years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Widely publicised incidents of Bangladeshi and Pakistani nationals travelling on South African passports in 2022 caught global attention when they were apprehended for fraudulent immigration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This led to airlines in countries like the UK subjecting South African travellers to often humiliating <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/594602\/government-responds-to-ryanairs-afrikaans-quiz-policy\/\"><strong>&#8216;authenticity&#8217; checks<\/strong><\/a> because they did not trust the document.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Several <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/629933\/home-affairs-nails-500-fake-south-african-passports\/\"><strong>high-profile busts<\/strong><\/a> of syndicates operating in South Africa soon followed, along with the Department of Home Affairs tightening up security processes in an attempt to restore confidence in the security of the document.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the end, travellers from Bangladesh and Pakistan were required to <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/622257\/how-criminals-make-a-mockery-of-passport-security-in-south-africa\/\"><strong>apply for a visa when transiting through South Africa<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the latest Henley Passport Index, South Africans can travel to 108 countries visa-free &#8211; including Ireland, for now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since the last index,\u00a0<strong>South Africans can now travel to Kiribati in Oceania without a visa<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many countries South Africans can travel to without a visa are found in Africa, Asia, the Americas, the Caribbean and Asia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, popular emigration hotspots for South Africans, including the UK, Australia, and the USA, still require a visa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/769125\/the-cost-of-a-south-african-passport-vs-australia-usa-new-zealand-uae-and-more\/\">The cost of a South African passport vs Australia, USA, New Zealand, UAE and more<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Irish government is reportedly set to discuss the future of visa-free entry for South Africans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":531282,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9876],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-769911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=769911"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769911\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":769932,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769911\/revisions\/769932"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/531282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=769911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=769911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=769911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}