“I’m a lovely lad, I get on with anyone”
15:22, 22 Jun 2025Updated 15:25, 22 Jun 2025
Jordan Howman says he was pulled to one side at the airport before being sent back to Manchester(Image: SWNS)
A Cheshire dad says he was ‘devastated’ and his partner left in tears after being kicked out of Dubai over his face tattoos.
Jordan Howman, 34, flew from Manchester Airport to Dubai, where he landed for a week-long holiday.
It was supposed to be a dream trip alongside his fiancée Theresa, 38, and daughter Kaic, 16.
But Jordan says things turned sour when immigration officers pulled him to one side at the airport, before confiscating his passport.
The plasterer, from Crewe, says he had ‘worked his a*** off’ to save up for the £3,000 trip and was hoping to spend five days seeing the United Arab Emirates, which he described as his ‘favourite country in the world’.
Jordan Howman is heavily tattooed – but says it wasn’t an issue on previous trips to Dubai(Image: SWNS)
Instead, Mr Howman claims he was held for six hours before immigration officers sent him packing ‘because of his face tattoos’.
Jordan got the geometric cubes tattooed on his face around eight or nine years ago alongside words like ‘blessed’, ‘family’ and ‘crazy life’.
He says the tattoos had never caused problems during his previous two visits to Dubai, but on this occasion he was less fortunate.
“My missus has been crying her eyes out,” he said. “It has absolutely devastated me. I feel like I’ve been massively discriminated against. There’s no law against face tattoos – there’s nothing like that.
“I’m a lovely lad, I get on with anyone. It’s made me feel absolutely rubbish. I’m not allowed in a country because of the way I look. It’s properly, massively affected me.
“It was my favourite country, but this has absolutely ruined it. Now I’ll never go again. I’ve lost all of my money because of a pattern on my face.”
Mr Howman’s Emirates flight from Manchester landed at Dubai International Airport on Wednesday (June 11) at 7.30am.
Jordan was devastated by what happened(Image: SWNS)
“It was my third trip to Dubai,” he said. “I’d had no problems all the other times. But this time, as we got in, I scanned my passport and was just about to go through security when an airport worker pulled us aside.
“We were about to put our hand luggage on the conveyor belt when the man said: ‘Follow me’.”
After taking Mr Howman aside, the man asked if he’d had his passport stamped before taking it from him.
“Then he snatched my passport out of my hand,” he said. “There had been nowhere to stamp it – we’d used the electronic gates. It was just an excuse to get the passport out of my hand.”
After being held in a waiting room for over four hours, Mr Howman was transferred to immigration at around 12am, he said. By this time, his family had reached their five star Anantara hotel.
He called his partner and she got a taxi to the airport but he says ‘they wouldn’t let me see her’ and she got a taxi back to the hotel, costing a total of £250.
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Mr Howman said he was not given his passport back for some time which was ‘terrifying’.
“A woman came and took me upstairs to immigration, where they said: ‘He’s not coming in because of his face tattoos – you’re not coming in because of the way you look’,” he said.
“One of the staff behind the desk said a more senior immigration officer made the decision, saying I was not to enter Dubai and that I must leave the country immediately.”
At 2.30pm, Mr Howman was put on another Emirates flight heading back to the UK.
“They sent me on a flight back to Manchester. It was only when I landed that I got my passport back. Friday morning was the first time I got to see my daughter, over Facetime.”
The General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs Dubai have been approached for comment. Dubai Airports was also contacted for comment.