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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<\/a> border rules.<\/p>\n 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 \u201cillegitimacy tax\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n Before Brexit<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n She later booked a flight from there to Spain, where she had relatives, but said the experience had left her \u201cpetrified\u201d as a woman travelling alone.<\/p>\n \u201cI had left on 2 April from Luton airport using my Spanish passport, as I had always done throughout my whole life,\u201d said Cochrane de la Rosa. \u201cWhen it came to the return, I had no problems getting through passport control or security.<\/p>\n \u201cI was at the departure gate when the easyJet worker asked for my documentation, which I was obviously surprised about. I had no idea what she was referring to.\u201d<\/p>\n It was then that she learned of the new border rules<\/a> that came into force on 26 February requiring British dual nationals to present a British passport before boarding a flight or to buy a \u201ccertificate of entitlement\u201d to the right of abode in the UK at a cost of \u00a3589.<\/p>\n A member of easyJet\u2019s ground crew contacted the Home Office but she was still refused, despite having access to her British birth certificate and a British driving licence. \u201cIt was pure shock,\u201d Cochrane de la Rosa said.<\/p>\n She said the British embassy had refused an application for emergency travel documentation because it \u201cdidn\u2019t meet the threshold of what they consider to be an emergency\u201d.<\/p>\n Her father, Nick, said it was \u201cludicrous\u201d that his daughter was being refused entry to the country of her birth. \u201cHow is it that someone can be born in the UK, go to school in the UK and now pay taxes in the UK and be refused entry to their home country?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cShe\u2019s legally allowed to work here but it\u2019s like she\u2019s not legally entitled to travel into the country,\u201d he said. They have written to their local MP, Catherine West, for help.<\/p>\n The government has rejected all calls for a grace period to allow British dual nationals the time to get British passports. Mike Tapp, the immigration minister, told parliament in February it was \u201cabsurd\u201d to suggest<\/a> the Home Office had not communicated the border rule change effectively.<\/p>\n A Home Office spokesperson said: \u201cSince 25 February 2026, all dual British citizens need to present either a valid British passport or certificate of entitlement when travelling to the UK.\u201d<\/p>\n They also said that guidance for dual nationals had been available since October 2024 on the government website.<\/p>\n However, critics have said travellers do not look at gov.uk before they book flights and that the Home Office failed to run media campaigns at airports and ports or to tried to alert dual nationals in other ways.<\/p>\n