David Toropu’s mother says she’s been in tears and suffered panic attacks since border control stopped the nine-year-old from boarding a flight to the UK
Bryana Francis and Olivia Bridge Reporter in Live News Network
08:59, 09 Apr 2026Updated 08:59, 09 Apr 2026
Border control blocked David Toropu from returning back to his home country(Image: Chris Baker/Walesonline)
A nine-year-old schoolboy from Cardiff has been stranded overseas for days after UK border officials said he would not be permitted to board a plane back home due to a recent rule change.
David Toropu, his mum, Christina, her husband and her stepson, had all enjoyed a four-night holiday in Venice as part of a rugby tour over the Easter break. The family said they had no difficulties flying out to Italy, but David was stopped from boarding the flight back to London Gatwick from Milan airport on Thursday (April 2).
The youngster, who was born in Cardiff, was told by officials there were no records of his UK residency. This is despite attending school and living permanently in Wales for his entire life, reports Wales Online.
The problem seemingly stemmed from a Brexit rule change and confusion over David’s residency status. The Welsh schoolboy holds a Romanian passport with his parents having moved to the UK a year before he was born. His mum explained how both her and David’s dad are Romanian nationals – his dad has settled status and mum has pre-settled status.
Christina explained: “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.
David became stuck abroad after being told he couldn’t board the flight home(Image: Chris Baker/Walesonline)
“Because I thought that was given automatically to him 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.”
With her son unable to travel home, Christina had to stay in Italy with him while her stepson and husband returned home to allow him to go to school and her husband to return to work. The mum and son spent two further nights in Italy but have now travelled to Romania where they are staying with family until David is able to travel home.
The family, who have been separated across the continent, have no idea when they will be able to reunite.
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.
“Since he was denied I’ve had multiple panic attacks, 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.
“He heard the whole conversation of him being refused at the border and he was asking what was going to happen to him. 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 remedy the situation by applying for an electronic travel authorisation (ETA) but because the visa is intended for travel to the UK and not residency and his address was his address which is in the UK, the immigration control maintained that he couldn’t travel back.
Now she is worried that resolving the situation could result in David missing substantial amounts of school and her missing critical health appointments in the UK.
Christina is also concerned about the substantial costs she has faced as a result of the mix-up, having spent around £2,000 on hotel rooms, flights and applications in less than a week.
She 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.”
David’s constituency MP, Alex Davies-Jones, told WalesOnline: “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.”
In February, the UK government introduced a new travel system changing the rules for many visitors and dual nationals entering the UK. The system means dual nationals are required to either show a British passport or a new digital version of the certificate of entitlement to the right of abode or they risk being denied entry.
They used to be able to travel the UK without such a certificate using their non-British passport and the 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.
The government is therefore encouraging dual nationals to either apply for a British passport, which costs around £100 for an adult, or a certificate of entitlement which costs £589.
A spokesperson from the Home Office said the necessary documentation has now been granted.