Brit boy, 9, caught overseas as border management tells him he cannot return to UK with household
David Toropu, nine, and his mum Christina were told he could not fly to the UK at Milan airport on Thursday because the UK border control held no record of his UK residency
David encountered no problems leaving the UK(Image: Chris Baker)
A nine-year-old lad from Cardiff is stranded overseas after his family were informed he couldn’t return to the UK at check-in, despite being born there.
David Toropu and his mum are now marooned in Romania, awaiting news on when they might be able to come back home following a recent alteration in UK government rules.
David, his mum Christina, along with her husband and stepson, had embarked on a rugby tour to Venice during the first week of the Easter holidays. After a four-night stay, the family arrived to check in at Milan airport on Thursday, April 2, for their return flight to London Gatwick.
They anticipated breezing through all the airport checks as they had done on their outbound journey, but were confronted with an unforeseen issue – they were told David wasn’t permitted to board a flight to the UK as UK border control held no record of his UK residency.
Despite being born in Cardiff and living his entire life in Wales, David possesses a Romanian passport, with his parents having relocated to the UK a year prior to his birth. His mum clarified that both she and David’s dad are Romanian nationals – his dad has settled status and mum has pre-settled status.
Christina elaborated: “I wasn’t aware that I needed to apply for his own status because since he was born in 2016 after seven years of continuous residency he was supposed to get automatic British citizenship.”, reports Wales Online.
“Because I thought that was given automatically to him he wouldn’t need to have his own settled or pre-settled status since he would have dual citizenship. However, the rules have changed since Brexit and I wasn’t aware of that.”
With her son unable to travel home, Christina had to remain in Italy with him while her stepson and husband returned home to allow him to attend school and her husband to get back to work. The mum and son spent two additional nights in Italy but have now travelled to Romania where they are staying with relatives until David is able to journey home.
The family, who have been split across the continent, have no clue when they will be able to reunite.
Christina said: “The UK border said they didn’t hold any record of David ever being in the UK but he goes to school, he’s enrolled in many public things like football, his GP is in the UK, his whole life is over there. He’s only left the UK once when he was two years old for two weeks.
“Since he was denied I’ve had multiple panic attacks, I’m losing my head and I can’t stop crying. He’s used to his routines, his comfort in his house and everything that is his normal life.
“He heard the whole conversation of him being refused at the border and he was asking what was going to happen to him. In his mind he was thinking they were going to take me back to the UK and leave him in Italy.”
At the airport, Christina attempted to resolve the issue by applying for an electronic travel authorisation (ETA), but since the visa is designed for travel to the UK rather than residency and his address was listed as his UK home, immigration officials insisted he couldn’t return.
She’s now anxious that sorting out the predicament could lead to David missing significant periods of school and her missing vital health appointments back in the UK.
Christina is also troubled by the enormous expenses she’s encountered due to the confusion, having splashed out roughly £2,000 on hotel accommodation, flights and applications in under a week.
She said: “We have made a really big dent into our savings and the rugby team my stepson plays for has created a gofundme to try and help us with the costs. In the Italian hotel we had the cheapest and smallest room and it cost £157 a night by itself.”
David’s constituency MP, Alex Davies-Jones, told WalesOnline: “I’m really concerned to hear about David’s situation, and I’ve been in contact with his family to offer support. This is clearly a very distressing experience for both David and his mum.
“My office is doing everything we can to assist the family in resolving this as quickly as possible, and I will continue to support them in any way I can to help bring David home safely.” In February, the UK government rolled out a new travel system that altered the rules for numerous visitors and dual nationals entering the UK. The system requires dual nationals to present either a British passport or a new digital version of the certificate of entitlement to the right of abode or they face the possibility of being refused entry.
Previously, they could travel to the UK without such documentation using their non-British passport, and the certificates of entitlement aren’t issued automatically – meaning some individuals have spent decades residing in the UK without ever needing to apply for them.
The government is therefore urging dual nationals to either apply for a British passport, which costs approximately £100 for an adult, or a certificate of entitlement which costs £589.
A spokesperson from the Home Office confirmed the necessary documentation has now been issued.
