CBANDY

I recently took my 2 year old daughter on a flying visit to see my parents and family in Glasgow. She was a little darling the whole trip and is a great traveller. (I am not biased at all)
My wife could not travel as she is 8 months preganant.
On arriving at Glasgow airport the Imigration officer told me that he had a problem with my passport and would have to investigate. I gave him my home address and telephone number and also that of my parents. When he left with our passports my little princess anounced to the whole airport that she needed a pee pee. (Great timing). One of the other officers heard her and let us into their offices to use their toilet. (extremely greatfull). He told me not to worry as there were some new rules that they had to abide by. I was left for about 30 minutes untill the officer came back with our passports and told me that he had cantacted my wife (who thought it was a wind-up at first) and all was ok. He said i wouldnt normally have been held but as i was traveling alone with a small child he felt he had to check it out.

I have absolutely no problem with their procedures and they were very courteous at all times (apart from when he was firing 100 questions at me with quick succession to see my reaction).

My question is............

That all happened bringing a child INTO the uk (with 2 uk passports).

When i LEFT Glasgow 3 days later with the same child. The only person who looked at our passports was the girl at the check-in desk. Everyone else just wanted our boarding pass. surely it should have been harder to leave the uk with a child than enter!!!!!

As i said, I have no probems with imigration as i think if there were stricter controls we would not see some of the things that have gone on in the past. Also, If i was the mother and not the father would i have gone through the same thing?

Sorry for the long post but i would just like some opinions.

Thank you in anticipation

By the way, we had a lovely 3 days with the family.

fionamw

I have not had a problem loads of times travelling either out of/into Spain or out of/into the UK with my now nearly 7 year old son whose surname is that of my OH but my passport is a different surname.... UNTIL.
Quite by chance a helpful EasyJet woman at Malaga airport pointed out that if I'd booked us on the same flight but separate bookings (this happens quite often depending on who's going where, when, etc) and she were at the checkin desk, she wouldn't let us through. I said I'd done it loads of times, she said I was just lucky. Now this is nothing to do with passport control, immigration, none of that. It's EasyJet leaving it up to their staff how to interpret what I presume are guidelines the company has about adult/child flights. The fact that I'm let's say a mature mum & have on bad days been asked if he's my grandson probably adds to their case... anyway she said I should email EasyJet, get them to put a 'link' on the bookings so that when I turned up there'd be no problem. (OH was going to be there anyway so made sure he had his passport & could vouch I was the mum!).... turn up Bristol airport, man asks if I'm the mother, OH does the vouching bit, I say shouldn't there be a link on my booking he says well indeed so - since I'd got a printout with me for belt & braces I could show him - but it doesn't always work typical.

dazzle

I would think almost certainly not.

It is a difficult one isn't it? We certainly don't want to be critical of anything that's done to protect children but I often wonder how they decide on who to target.

Maybe there is a mountain of actual evidence that says that children who are abducted (by family members or strangers) are taken by men or maybe it's just a common misconception.

I've no idea so I just have to trust that someone, somewhere, does!

CBANDY

But why was i able to leave the country with such ease????

dazzle

I've no idea - maybe you looked less sinister on the way back

CBANDY

Hmm.... Maybe i just have one of those faces.

Rosemary

Not sure if this has anything at all to do with your experience but a couple of years ago there were incidents of young children being brought into UK by male members of a family and being dumped. So maybe they have tightened up on things so that this is less likely to happen.

Rosemary

CBANDY

By brits?????

Maybe they thought i was another person looking to pick up benefits and stay.

Lorna at Vicenza

Or maybe it's because they couldn't care less about who is leaving the country.

I've travelled lots of times alone with my two kids - back and forth to Italy though and not Spain. I've been held up at check-in a couple of times but that's because the kids travel on an Italian identity type card and not British passports - and their surname is different to mine.

There is some special wording on the back of each of their cards that says:

"can travel with father Massimo ......... AND / OR mother Lorna ...............

I'd be in trouble without that extra bit.

Sharon B

Last year my children who are now Spanish residents went back to the UK from Faro with their grandparents during the summer and they returned with their uncle and aunt, all with different surnames. Because the flight was from Faro I went to the notary to authorise travel for the children (as the British Commission in Lisbon stated would be advisable). To cut a long story short I had been imagining my parents being held under guard and interrogated. However, they were not stopped/questioned/asked to produce documentation/and we were not contacted for authorisation at Faro/Birmingham or the return Stansted/Faro. In a way I was disappointed that no one had queried the movement of the children in and out of the country.

Rosemary

By all nationalities.......if people will pay for what they see as a way of ensuring that their child has a better future then there is always someone who will take their money.

Rosemary

jdr

It is always best to carry a letter of authorization from the other parent/parents if you are traveling with a child, as they can refuse exit or entry.

Hettyb

Yes, we have been asked by Faro Immigration to produce this letter on more than one occaision when travelling with our children's friends and once a twelve year old travelling with us was interrogated by the Thomsonfly rep at the UK end. Luckily he said all the right things

jdunbavin

I saw a family refused entry to Gibraltar as one of their children's friends travelling with them did not have a letter of authorization. Is that for securiy reasons or political?

jdr

It`s to stop people taking kids out the country illegally from the parents custody.