Teenage Briton left stranded in Denmark after being 'locked out' of UK over passport rules

Marcus Donaldson
Tue, 31 Mar 2026 19:05:52 +0000

A British-Norwegian teenager has spent more than three weeks stranded in Denmark after changes to passport rules prevented her from returning to the UK.

The 16-year-old girl, who holds dual citizenship and was born in Bristol, found herself unable to board a Norwegian Airlines flight from Copenhagen to London on March 8.

The teen, who has chosen to remain anonymous, was travelling with her Norwegian-born mother to return home from visiting her father when she was stopped at check-in.

She has accused the British government of "locking" her out of her own country and treating her with hostility.

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The teenager will finally return to Britain on Wednesday after receiving emergency travel documents, although she has missed several weeks of school during the ordeal.

Regulations introduced in February now require British dual nationals, including minors, to use a British or Irish passport when entering the UK.

Before these changes took effect, dual citizens were permitted to travel with their foreign passports.

When the teenager attempted to travel, she was awaiting a British passport, which she had applied for before her trip to Denmark.

As airline staff struggled to process her check-in, Norwegian Airlines contacted the British embassy in Copenhagen seeking assistance.

However, embassy officials informed the carrier that they could not provide any assistance.

The teenager had applied for her British passport before departing for her father's visit, but the document had not arrived in time for her return journey.

On the day she finally obtained her emergency travel document, she expressed profound disappointment with the Government's handling of her situation, urging politicians to rectify what she described as their "mistake".

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"I turned 16 in January. Six weeks later, my country locked me out.

“I have been here ever since, missing school, missing my friends, missing my life, because the UK has decided that I, a British citizen born in Bristol, am not sufficiently British to be allowed to return," she said.

The teenager acknowledged individual officials she encountered had generally been kind, with some appearing embarrassed by the situation.

"But the system itself has no kindness in it," the teen told The Times.

"It does not see a child missing school. It does not see a girl who is missing key content for her soon-to-take-place GCSEs."

The teenager said her experience had shattered what she now considers a "naive" belief Britain valued fairness and common sense.

"I do not believe that any more," she said, adding the system views people merely as "a category, an application, a reference number, a fee".

During her three weeks away from school, the teenager has been revising at her father's flat while trying to keep pace with her studies.