Woman cried on airport floor after passport confusion

A Canadian-born woman who was left sobbing when her flight home to the UK left without her said she had "no knowledge" of changes to digital passport rules.

Liz Costello, 55, from Walkden in Salford, has a physical certificate in her Canadian passport that grants her a legal right to enter the UK but had not updated it to a new digital system introduced in February.

She was told she could not return to Manchester from her city-break to Barcelona on 22 March due to having the wrong documents and needed the help of her local MP to return days later.

Costello said: "I just didn't understand, I had no knowledge of everything changing to digital. I travelled for 16 years previously with no issues."

Costello was born in Canada but has lived in Britain for more than 50 years after she was adopted by a couple at the age of five in 1976.

Costello had been travelling with a Certificate of Entitlement, stuck inside her Canadian passport, which proved she had permission to reside in the UK.

But in February, the UK government moved towards a digital e-visa system, where the certificates were moved online, with the requirement for certificates to be validated digitally by airlines.

She had been showing her physical certificate to border guards in a Canadian passport that had expired in 2010 and said she had not had any issues.

Under the change, she now faces having to pay £589 for a new digital certificate.

The Home Office has been approached for comment about her case.

When she arrived at the airport after the city break, she and her husband were held back from boarding their flight.

She said airline staff started talking about the e-visas, "but I just didn't understand, I had no knowledge of everything changing to digital".

Costello said she was "embarrassed and agitated".

"I stood there thinking 'what's going to happen, how am I supposed to get home to my children?'

"All I wanted to do is go home."

She was sitting at the airport despondent while her husband Michael rang around various UK authorities trying to resolve the situation.

He said he was "passed from pillar to post" between various agencies and could not get any help.

The couple tried to then complete the e-visa application while outside the airport, but Costello said she was too upset to be able to complete the process.

They spent an extra £2,000 staying in Barcelona for four more nights until they arranged for help getting home via their local MP Yasmin Qureshi.

In a statement Jet2 said a decision was made to stop Costello boarding the plane after "consultation with the relevant UK authorities at the time of departure".

"Upon further direction from the UK authorities, we arranged a return flight free of charge for Mrs Costello.

"We would of course like to apologise for this isolated incident."

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