The tour group were on a planned 47-day trip to explore the country, and comprised of 10 South Africans, nine British nationals and one Indian national, Gift of the Givers founder Imtiaz Sooliman said in a statement.
The tour didn't go well, when on Friday, the group were arrested at Erdos airport, in Inner Mongolia, at 09:40 local time.
Mystery surrounds the details of why they have been arrested and detained in China, with Department of International Relations saying they are at work to find out the facts and offer support to the families of those affected.
Cellphones were confiscated, there was no access to the embassies of origin nor to their families. They were detained without charge with no access to any communication nor to legal representation.
Although government confirmation has yet to be received it is being reported that the South Africans were traveling on business class on a flight to inner Mongolia and were arrested along with their tour mates.
As reported by EWN:
The Department of International Relations spokesperson Nelson Kgwete says “At the moment we’re going to take advice from our embassy in Beijing on what the nature of the charges are and what the next steps would be.”
There has been no confirmation from government as yet, but it appears the South Africans who were detained were traveling on business.
They were arrested on Friday but the SA government was made aware of the arrests on Sunday.
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