Minister rules out travel visa compensation calls

Jersey's home affairs minister has refused calls for the government to compensate islanders who were wrongly forced to pay up to £170 for emergency travel documents.

The UK introduced electronic travel authorisations (ETA) earlier this year, which visitors need to buy before coming to the country.

People with British or Irish passports or settled status do not need them but there has been confusion at airports over Jersey's physical settled status papers leading to some incurring hundreds of pounds in costs.

Deputy Mary Le Hegarat said "this clearly sits with the airline and it clearly needs them to be compensating people" and "we're doing as much as we can" to help those affected.

It follows Deputy Catherine Curtis writing to Le Hegarat asking whether the government would provide financial support.

Le Hegarat said: "I think it's very difficult to accept responsibility for something that you actually physically can't change.

"All I can do is ensure that the resources that I have available to me are doing as much as we possibly can to alleviate and help the public to be able to deal with this and encourage them to make those compensation claims.

"The responsibility is still with the airline who's actually accepted people's money to allow them to travel to Jersey."

The minister was also asked what her department had done ahead of time to try to prevent these problems and what measures will be taken to stop it happening to more islanders.

Le Hegarat said "engagement with the UK on the introduction of ETAs has taken place for approximately three years" and "carriers had and continue to have access to relevant information needed in order to board Jersey passengers".

She added: "The Crown Dependencies are currently working at pace to digitalise immigration permissions, which will become available in phases between June 2026 and early 2027."

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