National
China issues travel advisory for SA amid xenophobic attacks─── 10:19 Wed, 22 Apr 2015
Cape Town - Chinese nationals planning to visit South Africa have been warned to exercise caution due to ongoing xenophobic violence, which start more than two weeks ago.
Issued by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government on Monday 20 April, via its website, the amber travel alert states, “Residents intending to visit the country or who are already there should monitor the situation, exercise caution, attend to personal safety and avoid protests and large gatherings of people.”
It also advised residents in South Africa who needed assistance to call 24-hour hotline of the Assistance to Hong Kong Residents Unit (AHU) of the Immigration Department at (852)1868 or contact the Chinese Embassy in South Africa’s Consular protection hotline on (0027) 785857708).
Amber is the lowest form of advisory issued, with red advisories requiring travel plan adjustments and black advisories indicating a need to avoid all travel to that specific country.
The UK and Australia have also added warnings of the recent xenophobic violence taking place in Johannesburg, Durban and other parts of KwaZulu-Natal.
This does not bode well for tourism from China, which Minister of Tourism Derek Hanekom confirmed was already in decline since the second half of 2014.
The decline has been attributed largely to Ebola fears and the implementation of strict new visa regulations requiring in-person visa applications for biometric data as well as the new travel rule requiring an unabridged birth certificate for children traveling to, from or through SA. The rules for children were put on hold but will once again come into effect on 1 June 2015.
