Helping a young military family return home safely

A young military family from the Forest of Dean recently got in touch with my team and me after travelling to America and being denied return home due to issues at border control.

They were able to travel to stay with family in the Netherlands but still couldn't return home to the UK.

My team contacted the UK Ambassador to the Netherlands and worked with Sofie and Ben to secure an emergency travel document, ensuring they could return home safely to the UK.

These types of cases are sensitive and can be incredibly distressing for those involved, but I am pleased that my team and I were able to help Sofie, Ben, and their son return home safely.

I caught up with them just last week, and it was great to finally meet them in person!

Please read their story in their own words below:

"On 18th July 2026 my 1 year old son was denied access to a flight home from Washington, DC to London after a family holiday in America. The rest of our family returned home and my partner, son and I were forced to book expensive last minute flights to the Netherlands. We were informed that because our son has automatic dual nationality with a Dutch mother and British father, he can no longer travel into the UK with only a Dutch passport. Even having his full birth certificate and both parents present with our passports was not sufficient to prove his right to return home.

As soon as we landed in the Netherlands, after finding out none of our luggage had made it onto our flight, we immediately contacted the foreign British consulate in London as well as the British Embassy in The Hage, Netherlands.

Every service we spoke to, told us our son is not eligible for any emergency documents and we were losing all hope. It started to look as though we were going to be stranded abroad for up to 10 weeks without any kind of support from the authorities.

We reached out to our local MP, Matt Bishop, and his team the next day as an absolute last resort - half not expecting to hear anything back. To our delight, we received a response within a few hours from one of Matt Bishop’s wonderful team members explaining that they were going to contact everyone and do everything possible to help us get our son home as soon as possible. They called us every single day we were there and updated us on all the steps they were taking each day on our behalf. This caused us a great amount of relief during such an unknown period of time, and we were home 3 weeks later after successfully acquiring an emergency travel document from the British Embassy.

We have safely returned home, have been able to go back to work, and had the opportunity to meet Matt’s team and the individuals who worked so hard to help us. The commitment and care they had for our case was incredible, and we are so grateful to have been able to thank them in person."