South Africa lets 153 Palestinians disembark following 12-hour plane ordeal

South Africa has allowed more than 150 Palestinian airline passengers to disembark, after they were kept on a plane for almost 12 hours by the country’s border police.

South Africa’s Department of Home Affairs authorised the passengers to get off the plane on Thursday night after a local humanitarian organisation guaranteed to provide the passengers with accommodation during their stay in South Africa if needed.

The chartered plane carrying 153 Palestinians landed shortly after 8am (06:00 GMT) on Thursday morning at OR Tambo International Airport, which serves the cities of Johannesburg and Pretoria. The passengers were kept on the aircraft by border police as they did not have departure stamps from Israel on their passports.

The passengers were finally allowed to disembark 12 hours later.