The £3,000 dream holiday of University of Manchester student and his pal ended before it started when they were booted out of the Caribbean after just four hours - and they say they have no idea why.
Electrical engineer, Molly Kelly, and student, Oliver Wright, both 22, were put on a return fligth to Manchester from Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic after a brief and distressing visit. While Oliver had walked through customs with no problems, Molly was taken aside for further questioning before her passport was branded with a large, red 'nulo' stamp, meaning 'invalid', the Mirror reports.
After bursting into tears and trying without success to gain an understanding of what she'd done wrong, Molly and Oliver boarded a plane that took them straight back to the UK. Now they are trying to find out what went wrong and whether TUI will refund them any of the money they spent on the luxury 10-day holiday.
The pair, from Anglesey, North Wales, claim they were left “completely in the dark as to what was happening, why, and where it would go from here”, The Mirror reports.
Molly claims she has no criminal record and there's nothing in her past that would mean she's refused entry. She says a border official mentioned "justice" and "Colombia" when she pushed for an explanation - a country neither her nor Oliver have been to.
"Throughout the flight and while waiting at the gate, we had other passengers making comments, giving dirty looks such as 'we don’t want to be on the same flight as these criminals', only further adding to our distress and trauma," said Molly, describing the journey home.
She added: "The way they treated us, and are denying access to information is abhorrent." Oliver, a pharmacology student at the University of Manchester, and Molly, an electrical engineer for SP Energy Networks, had been looking forward to their stay at the Riu Republica, which offers all-inclusive breaks in the island's dazzling sunshine.
Having touched down on June 26 and after Oliver was let through border control, a guard scrutinised Molly's passport, attempting to scan it multiple times. "The woman then shook her head and pulled a face, and disappeared into an interrogation room behind the passport control booth, with my passport, without saying anything," Molly claimed.
After being beckoned into a room the pair asked members of staff what the problem was, but they were "completely ignored", they claim. "A man disappeared with my passport out of the room and doesn’t return for about 10 minutes," Molly said, claiming both her and Oliver were "highly distressed", "terrified and confused" by this point.
Molly, from, Anglesey then broke down "into floods of tears", she claims. After a short while Molly was told she'd need to visit an embassy but not one in the Dominican Republic as she'd first thought, but in London.
At this point that the duo decided that the “best proceedings would be to go with it and get home safely on UK soil”.
Now home, Molly and Oliver are trying to work out what happened and why they were not let into the country. They have contacted the Dominican Republic embassy and the Foreign Office, and made efforts to find out whether Molly has anything on her record that would stop her entering the country.
She claims they've found nothing. The Mirror has contacted the Dominican Republic and Colombian embassies for comment, but has received no reply.
A TUI spokesperson said: “We are very concerned to hear about Ms Kelly’s experience. While we have no control over border control decisions we are doing our best to contact the customer to support them through this situation. Our teams have reached out to Ms Kelly and we would welcome conversations to be able to reach a resolution."
