British schoolgirl stranded in Denmark after return flight blocked over UK border rules

A 16-year-old British schoolgirl has been left stranded in Denmark after she was refused board on a flight to London because of new UK border rules introduced on British dual nationals.Hanne*, from Sussex, was stopped from boarding a flight home on 8 March after a weekend seeing her British father, who is an academic on a short work stint at a university in Copenhagen.She had travelled with her Norwegian-born mother but was still waiting for a British passport, which she had applied for before the trip.Her Liberal Democrat MP, James MacCleary, called on Keir Starmer and Shabana Mahmood to intervene, saying a school child now faced “a nail-biting wait” overseas “due to the government’s mishandling of this situation”.Like hundreds of others known to the Guardian, her parents did not know of the rule change brought in by the Home Office.Hanne, who is sitting her GCSEs in May, has now missed two weeks of school and is facing a potential six-week wait for a passport. The first the family knew about the new border rules was when they tried to check in for their return flights. “We tried to check in on the app and it allowed me to check in but not Hanne,” said her mother, Ingrid*. “When we got to the airport and they wouldn’t let her check in either.”The airline, Norwegian, rang the British embassy in Copenhagen but they could not help. One immigration lawyer said the Home Office could be breaching laws concerning the welfare of children.“Obviously it is very stressful,” Ingrid added. “We are very worried about the GCSEs, she is missing school, missing her mother, her siblings and all the other things in her life.”“It will be a disaster if she can’t come back soon.”MacCleary said: “The Government’s hopeless planning and communication of its changes to entry requirements for dual nationals has caused an untold amount of chaos and stress. “Too many dual nationals have found themselves stranded abroad in heartbreaking situations, missing funerals, weddings, or in the case of my constituent an absolutely crucial time in education.“The home secretary needs to pull her finger out and urgently provide a low-cost and quick alternative for dual nationals stuck abroad. If she fails to act, the prime minister must step in to bring an end to the chaos, otherwise more children and families will pay the price.”Hanne’s school has also written a letter to help her parents efforts with the Home Office. “Hanne is effectively prevented from re-entering the UK despite being a British citizen and having a permanent home and school placement here,” the headteacher wrote.“She is currently missing taught lessons across all subjects and is at risk of missing important assessments, including GCSE exams.”Hanne is the third child the Guardian knows of who has been refused board on a flight back to the UK since new rules came into force on 25 February requiring British dual nationals to present a British passport, new or expired, or a certificate of entitlement costing £589 in order to check in for a flight, ferry or train journey to Britain.While British citizens have a statutory right to enter the UK they must prove they are British, which Hanne is able to provide as she has her birth certificate with her. She was born in Sussex and has lived all her life in the UK.Zeena Luchowa, an immigration lawyer at Laura Devine Immigration said under Section 55 of the Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Act 2009 the home secretary must “have regard to the need to safeguard and promote the welfare of children when exercising immigration functions”.She added that there was a “legitimate question as to whether sufficient regard has been given to the impact on children”.Luchowa pointed out that “British citizens have a statutory right to freely enter the UK” and this case showed the “disproportionate impact that a refusal to board” can have. It was “imperative that the UK authorities reconsider their guidance to carriers, to ensure a pragmatic and consistent approach is taken to allow certain individuals, particularly children, to be able to return to their home and livelihood in the UK”, Luchowa said.After being refused board on the flight two weeks ago, Hanne’s mother had to fly back to Britain without her daughter, collect her school books and a laptop and bring them to Copenhagen where she can home school.In a further setback, officials at the Passport Office told her father they would cancel Hanne’s passport application made weeks ago because they now knew Hanne was overseas. She would have to start again with an application from outside the country that could take six weeks, they told him.In a statement, the Home Office said: “Public information advising dual nationals to travel with a valid UK passport or certificate of entitlement has been available since October 2024, including official guidance on gov.uk”.The Home Office recently said British nationals could use an expired passport but acceptance as proof of nationality was at the discertion of the airline. It also updated its guidance to state EU citizens with settled status could continue to use their EU passport. Has your child been refused board on a flight because of the new rules? If you want to share your story, email: lisa.ocarroll@theguardian.com * Names have been changed.