Natasha Cochrane de la Rosa was refused boarding on flight to London because she was not aware of the rule change
A British woman has told how she fears being stranded in Spain for months after being refused boarding a on flight back home to London because she was not aware of new Home Office border rules.
Natasha Cochrane de la Rosa, 26, was born in the UK to a British father and a Spanish mother, but because of archaic laws she was not entitled automatically to British citizenship because her parents were not married. Other women born to unmarried parents have called the rules an “illegitimacy tax”.
Before Brexit, Cochrane de la Rosa could enter and leave the country on her Spanish passport under free movement laws. But she learned that this was no longer the case after taking a short break in the Netherlands, where she was forced to sleep in the airport overnight.
She later booked a flight from there to Spain, where she had relatives, but said the experience had left her “petrified” as a woman travelling alone.
