Seven-month-old British baby separated from parents and stuck in Algeria

By Pritti Mistry & Amanda White

BBC News

A seven-month-old British baby has been separated from her parents and is stuck in Algeria because of passport issues.

Adra, who has an Algerian passport, travelled to the North African country on 14 January with her mother but needs a British one to return home to Hull.

Her father, Abdel Meslem, said he applied four months ago, but the passport had still not arrived and described it as a “living nightmare”.

The Home Office said “all checks” had to be done before issuing a passport.

New passports were usually issued within three weeks of applications being received, they said.

Mr Meslem, who has British citizenship, said his wife, Souad, an Algerian national, had to return home to Hull on 25 March for a medical appointment but his daughter was not allowed back because she did not have the correct travel documents.

As a result, the couple were forced to leave their “bundle of joy” in Algeria with her maternal grandmother, who was looking after the child “really well”, he said.

Mr Meslem said the family were left “in limbo” and the “separation is just too much” to bear.

“It’s very devastating,” he said.

“She’s got her first tooth. I was never there to witness it. She’s saying her first mumbling words – she’s saying ‘da da’ – which every time I hear it, it brings a tear to my eye.

“She’s learning to crawl. I can’t see that.”

Mr Meslem, who has been living in Hull for more than 25 years, said he applied for his daughter’s British passport on 23 November 2023 and had “trusted the system” for the application to be processed within seven weeks, with flights booked for January.

Both mother and baby made the trip to the capital, Algiers, to visit the child’s grandmother. Mr Meslem later travelled to see his family but returned home two weeks’ later on 2 March because of “work commitments”.

“I was hoping by the time I was gonna join them I would have had her British passport, so we could spend two weeks together and travel back together.

“[But] nothing went as planned… we never received her passport.”

He said his daughter could not travel back using her Algerian passport because a visa was required to enter the UK. However, being a British citizen, Adra was not entitled to the visa.

Mr Meslem said he had contacted the British consulate in Algeria for assistance in obtaining emergency travel documents for his child but was denied support because, he was told, it was “not an emergency”.

“It’s just too upsetting,” he said.

“I just feel absolutely let down by the system. A passport application shouldn’t take [this long].

“We’re four months down the line and we’re still none the wiser.

“I haven’t got a date where I can see an end to this living nightmare.”

Mr Meslem believes his family was “being discriminated against” because of the couple’s nationality.

“I understand for security reasons you need to carry out all the necessary checks. But what necessary checks do you need to carry out on a seven-month-old baby?

“I beg them to support us because we just can’t carry on like this much longer.”

In a statement, a Home Office spokesperson said it was “the usual practice” for passports to be issued “once all checks are satisfactorily completed”.

“It is completely false to imply someone’s heritage could cause delays in passport issuance.”

The spokesperson said there were currently no issues in passport processing systems “despite continued high demand for passports”.

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