David Toropu and his mum are stranded in Romania (Image: Chris Baker)
A nine-year-old boy from the UK was left stranded abroad after his family was told he could not return home after a trip to Italy. David Toropu and his mum Christina were left in mainland Europe as a result of a recent Government rule change. With David unable to come home, Christina stayed with him while her stepson and husband returned to the UK.
The mum and son spent two nights in Italy before travelling to Romania where they are staying with family until David is able to come home. David, his mother, father and step-brother had been on a rugby tour to Venice in the first week of the Easter holidays. After a four-night stay, the family went to check in at an airport in Milan on Thursday, April 2 for a return flight to London Gatwick, but the family has been stuck in a bureaucratic nightmare ever since. David’s mum said: “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.”
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While David was born in Cardiff and lives Wales, he holds a Romanian passport as his parents settled in the UK a year before his birth.
His mum explained both she and David’s father are Romanian nationals. She said her husband has settled status while she has pre-settled status.
Christina told Wales Online: “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.
“Because I thought that was given automatically to him [so] 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.”
The Government launched a new travel system in February which changed the rules for visitors and dual nationals entering the UK.
Dual nationals are now required to either show a British passport or a new digital version of the certificate of entitlement to the right of abode. If they don’t, then they risk being denied entry.
Under the old rules, dual nationals could travel to the UK without such a certificate using their non-British passport. Certificates of entitlement are not automatically issued meaning some people have spent decades living in the UK and have never needed to apply for them before.
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.”
She said that since her son was stopped from travelling home she has had multiple panic attacks.
Christina said David overheard the conversation between his parents and border officials. She said: “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 tried to fix the situation by applying for an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA), but because the visa is intended for travel to the UK rather than residency and his registered address is in the UK, immigration officials insisted he couldn’t return.
Christina worries that David will miss school and that she will miss vital health appointments in the UK. She is also concerned about the cost of the mix-up, having spent around £2,000 on hotel rooms, flights and applications in less than a week.
The mum 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.”
Alex Davies-Jones, David’s constituency MP, told Wales Online: “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.”
The Government has been urging dual nationals to apply for either a British passport, which costs around £100 for an adult, or a certificate of entitlement, which carries a £589 charge. A spokesperson for the Home Office said the necessary documentation for David has now been granted. The family anticipate he will be able to return to the UK with his mum on Tuesday.