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British girl, 15, stranded in Rome for six weeks due to new passport rules (www.theguardian.com)
submitted 3 months ago by to c/uk_politics@feddit.uk
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[–] 13 points 3 months ago (14 children)

Without explaining more context on the new rules without digging through two sets of linked articles (thanks guardian) we are asked to believe that this was sneakily introduced to dual nationals of (given the examples the guardian chose to write about) EU citizens.

But actually the rules were introduced in February. So what I want to know is why the parents haven't bothered to check the rules before booking their child flights?

Or can I now claim ignorance of all rules I don't like too?

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  • [–] 35 points 3 months ago (12 children)

    Presumably they've been travelling for years with no problems, the changes were not in the news, so they never knew what they needed to look up. The fact that you can leave the country without the documents to get back makes this tricky.

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  • [–] 4 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    Presumably they've been travelling for years with no problems,

    so have I and that brings an understanding that rules around international travel change all time.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 months ago (9 children)

    Yeah and I travelled for years with no problems on a British passport until the rules changed because of Brexit. But you know what... I checked what they were before travelling again 🤣.

    I understand it is a hassle. That's why I got myself an Irish passport. And I don't blame the child for this. It's a shit show that could have been avoided absolutely. But the parents are incredibly naïve and irresponsible here too.

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  • [–] 7 points 3 months ago (5 children)

    When did you find out this change in rules? If not already in February, what would have prompted you to check requirements for entry into the UK, the country where you started out?

    We all checked entry requirements into EU countries the first time we travelled after Brexit. That was obvious. Did you check what you needed to get back home? I bet you didn't. I didn't.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 months ago (3 children)

    Well I got an Irish passport by this time so the rules don't apply to me. But back when Brexit happened I wasn't a dual national. But I did check the entry requirements. Hypothetically if I were travelling on a non UK passport I would have checked the entry requirements for the other way around. Or had the idea to simply carry both passports?

    But I first heard of the new rules back at the start of the year.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 months ago (2 children)

    Well I got an Irish passport by this time so the rules don't apply to me.

    Getting the Irish passport would make you subject to them wouldn't it?

    But ok, fair enough, you knew. I hadn't heard about this problem until this week. With no reason to believe the rules had changed, had I been a dual national with a foreign passport, I would have had no reason to check the entry requirements for the UK. I've certainly never checked them before, only the destination requirements. I'm sure I wouldn't have done so.

    Maybe hearing this from someone directly makes you understand that this really wasn't something everyone knew about?

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  • [–] 1 point 3 months ago (1 child)

    Yeah but the Irish passport can travel freely between EU and UK. So no bother.

    Maybe hearing this from someone directly makes you understand that this really wasn't something everyone knew about?

    Fair enough. I also want to know how many dual national travellers did follow the rules since they were introduced to see how much of a problem this is. For example if 1000 dial nationals followed the rules without issue but the guardian found four examples of people that didn't... well. Or is every single dual national getting caught out?

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  • [–] 3 points 3 months ago

    Yes that would be useful data. But I consider myself fairly well plugged in, and am planning a big holiday soon so am pretty switched on to travel issues. If I missed the information, I don't think there can have been much if an advertising campaign, because I would have been aware of it.

    One way to approach this kind of thing, besides having a public information campaign, is to enact it over a long period of time - at least a year - so that all those people who do routinely travel back on foreign passports have a chance to go on a summer holiday, come back and be informed at the border, "next year you will need a British passport." This isn't rocket science - it should be possible to make the number of people caught out very small indeed. (Given that we can guess at least half of dual national residents have and travel with a British passport anyway!)

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  • [–] 1 point 3 months ago

    Depends how long you're away. She was in school, so presumably went away for Easter in April.

    The new rule was introduced in February, well before she went away. She (or her parents) should have known she wouldn't be able to get back.

    However it still stands that the government did not communicate this change very well. But I feel like the government departments are getting too much of the blame for this - it's a bad policy with poor guidelines for implementation, and that isn't the fault of the civil servants who are tasked with implementing it.

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  • [–] -1 points 3 months ago* (2 children)

    They probably voted Brexit, so...

    Being stuck in Rome isn't exactly gitmo.

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