LONDON — The U.K.’s Brexit settlement scheme left a woman stranded at a foreign airport — after confusing her for her identical twin sister and stopping her from boarding her flight home. The error is the latest in a string of problems caused by the system’s design affecting tens of thousands of EU citizens living in Britain. When Brexit hit, EU nationals already resident in the U.K. at the time were given “settled status” granting them the right to stay once free movement ended.
But instead of getting a physical document to prove their status, the Home Office decided they would only be given a digital “eVisa” stored on a Home Office computer. Just one problem: the information in the eVisa computer isn’t always correct. The Home Office system sometimes gets confused, including, POLITICO has learned, between identical twins.
The system’s problem with identical twins is a “known issue,” the Home Office told Nidia Webb over the phone as she tried to work out why she had been stranded in a foreign country. When Webb, who has lived in the U.K. for eight years, tried to fly home from a holiday in Spain earlier this month, she was denied boarding at the gate. Her settled status wasn’t showing up in the system.
The flight departed without her. After spending hours on the phone with a Home Office helpline, the problem became clear. Webb was assured over the phone that she would get an update when the issue with her eVisa account had been fixed.
But in a result which failed to inspire confidence, the Home Office sent the confirmation email to her twin sister. Webb was forced to pay for a new flight home out of her own pocket — money her travel insurer said she should try to recover from the Home Office. The eVisa database keeps a record of a person’s full name, date of birth, nationality, and a facial photograph.
But these traits are by definition often a very close match for identical twins, including Webb, whose name is similar to that of her sister. Monique Hawkins, acting CEO of the3million, which campaigns for the rights of EU citizens living in the U.K., said problems with the eVisa system sometimes left people unable to prove their identity when they needed it most. We had hoped, after repeatedly raising this issue, that the Home Office had taken more steps to prevent it happening.
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