'Cruel' passport rule stops woman seeing dying mum

A British woman says "really cruel" changes to passport rules are preventing her visiting her terminally ill mother in East Yorkshire.

Annie, who lives in the Netherlands, has dual nationality and has been travelling on her Dutch passport to visit her.

Under new laws introduced this month, dual nationals now require a British passport or a new certificate of entitlement attached to their second nationality passport to enter the UK.

Annie said she had applied to renew her expired British passport, but is worried her 91-year-old mother may die before it arrives.

"It's heartbreaking for me because end of life is not tomorrow. It could be a week. It could be now. We don't know," she said.

"So I have had that choice taken away from me. I cannot just go and just sit with my mum.

"It's not in my hands. They're making a choice for me and it's heartbreaking and it's cruel. Actually, it's really cruel."

Annie claimed she had no advanced warning about the changes, which came into force on 25 February.

"No one has said anything at passport control," she said.

"There has been no advice, no information, no posters and therefore total lack of knowledge."

Annie's plight was first raised by The Guardian newspaper, leading to her mother's MP Sir David Davis to ask a question about the issue in Parliament.

Sir David described the situation as "a family disaster".

"I take the view that one of the absolute constitutional rights of British citizenship is the right to return to your own country and not to be intimidated out of doing so," he said.

The Conservative MP asked Home Office minister Mike Tapp if the government would "consider having a simple grace period of six months to allow people to get across this and stop people having their families disrupted?"

In response, the minister denied there was a lack of public information about the changes.

"There is no intimidation here," Tapp told the House of Commons.

"This is about a secure border and modernising. The equivalent nations around the world are doing exactly the same."

A Home Office spokesperson said guidance for dual nationals had been included in public campaigns and "a grace period has existed since the changes were introduced in 2023".

"We are doing these checks to ensure illegal migrants and foreign criminals cannot set foot here through our ports and borders by screening them before they travel," the spokesperson added.

"We strongly recommend dual citizens travel with their British passport or certificate of entitlement in their foreign passport."

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