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

A 16-year-old British schoolgirl was stranded in Denmark after she was refused to board a flight to London due to new UK border rules on British dual citizens.

Hanne*, from Sussex, was stopped from boarding a flight home on March 8 after seeing her British father, an academic working briefly at a university in Copenhagen, for the weekend.

He had traveled with his Norwegian-born mother but was still waiting for the British passport he had applied for before the trip.

Liberal Democrat MP James MacCleary called on Keir Starmer and Shabana Mahmood to intervene and said a schoolchild was facing a “nail-biting wait” abroad “due to the government’s mishandling of this situation”.

His parents, like hundreds of others known to the Guardian, were not aware of the Home Office rule change.

Hanne, who is due to sit her GCSEs in May, has now missed two weeks of school and faces a potential six-week wait for a passport. The family’s first notice of the new border rules was when they tried to check in for their return flight. “We tried to check in from the app and it allowed me to check in but not Hanne,” said her mother, Ingrid*. “When we got to the airport, they didn’t let him check in either.”

The Norwegian airline called the British embassy in Copenhagen but they were unable to help. The Home Office may be breaching child welfare laws, an immigration lawyer has said.

“Obviously it’s very stressful,” Ingrid added. “We are so worried about GCSEs, he misses school, he misses his mum, his siblings and other things in his life.”

“It would be a disaster if he doesn’t come back soon.”

MacCleary said: “The government’s desperate planning and delivery of changes to entry requirements for dual citizens has caused untold amounts of chaos and stress.

“Too many dual citizens have found themselves stranded abroad in heartbreaking situations, missing funerals, weddings or, in the case of my constituents, missing an absolutely crucial period in education.

“The home secretary needs to pull his finger and urgently offer a low-cost and rapid alternative for dual citizens stranded abroad. If he fails to act, the prime minister must step in to end the chaos, otherwise more children and families will pay the price.”

Hanne’s school also wrote to her parents to assist their efforts at the Home Office. “Hanne is effectively prevented from re-entering the UK despite being a British citizen and being permanently housed and schooled here,” the headteacher wrote.

“He is currently missing lessons taught in all subjects and is at risk of missing important assessments, including GCSE exams.”

Hanne is the third child known to the Guardian; He has been refused boarding on a flight back to the UK since new rules came into force on February 25 requiring dual British nationals to produce a new or expired British passport or a warrant worth £589 to check in for a flight, ferry or train journey to Britain.

Although British citizens have the legal right to enter the United Kingdom, they must prove that they are British; Hanne can ensure this because she has her birth certificate with her. He was born in Sussex and has lived in the UK all his life.

Zeena Luchowa, immigration attorney at Laura Devine Immigration Office, said: Chapter 55 According to the Borders, Nationality and Immigration Act 2009, the home secretary must “take into account the need to protect and promote the welfare of children in carrying out immigration duties”.

He added that there was a “legitimate question as to whether sufficient attention had been given to the impact on children”.

Luchowa pointed out that “British citizens have a legal right to freely enter the United Kingdom” and this case demonstrated the “disproportionate impact of refusing to board a plane”. Luchowa said it was “imperative that UK authorities review their guidance for carriers to ensure that a pragmatic and consistent approach is taken to allow certain people, particularly children, to return to their homes and livelihoods in the UK.”

After being refused boarding two weeks ago, Hanne’s mother had to fly back to England without her daughter, pick up her school books and laptop and bring them to Copenhagen, where she could be home-schooled.

In another setback, Passport Office officials told her father that they would cancel Hanne’s passport application, which she had submitted weeks earlier, as they now knew Hanne was abroad. They told him he would have to start over with an application from outside the country, which could take six weeks.

In a statement, the Home Office said: “Public information advising dual nationals to travel with a valid UK passport or authorization has been available since October 2024, including official guidance on gov.uk.”

The Home Office recently said British citizens can use an expired passport but it is at the discretion of the airline whether it is accepted as proof of nationality. It also updated its guidance stating that EU citizens with settled status can continue to use EU passports.

• Has your child been denied boarding because of the new rules? If you’d like to share your story, email: lisa.ocarroll@theguardian.com

• * Names have been changed.