A family could be stuck in Malljorca for weeks after their 12-year-old daughter's passport went missing at the airport. Gemma McKeown, her partner John Neely and their children had been on holiday in Mallorca and went to the airport for their flight home.
But between check-in and boarding their daughter's passport went missing - and it could take weeks to be replaced. Some of the family got on the plane but Gemma and John stayed behind with their daughter.
The family say they have had difficulty getting the emergency travel document they need from the British Embassy and have been told it could take up to eight weeks. Gemma told BelfastLive: "We are not sure what happened to my daughter's passport, we all got through check-in at the airport without a problem and then it suddenly was gone.
"Because we didn't have it my daughter couldn't get onto the plane so we decided that John and I would stay back with her and his son while my other daughter went home with her grandparents, so at least she wasn't stuck here with us. We waited for hours at the airport hoping that the passport would be handed in, but it never was, and then we contacted the embassy to see what we would be able to do.
"Thankfully we had one more night of our villa left so we were able to return there for the night, but all of our luggage and bags had gone with the plane back to Belfast, so we only have what we were wearing and missing vital medicine that we need. It wasn't until Monday that we were able to speak to someone from the Embassy who told us that it could be up to eight weeks before the emergency travel document could be processed and that our request was in a queue.
"After this we checked with the Irish Embassy to see what they could do and it shocked us to hear that if my daughter had an Irish passport we would have had a document that day. Now we are waiting for an interview with someone in the hopes that we can get this sorted as soon as possible and fly home this week."
Gemma said the ordeal has ruined their trip and she cannot understand why it is so difficult to get a travel document for someone to fly home in an emergency. She continued: "It has cost us roughly an additional £2,500 having to stay out here for at least another week and it has just been soul destroying. If this is delayed much further we don't know what we will do because we cannot afford to continue to stay here.
"I understand that child travel documents may be a bit more difficult than others to sort, but how can it be that it takes this long in an emergency situation? Our local MP Stephen Farry has been very helpful in trying to put pressure on the Embassy and we are praying we are able to get the Saturday flight home.
"I am looking forward to getting home now far more than I ever was about going on holiday in the first place."
