Marrakech: her vacation in Morocco turned into a nightmare because of a passport

A vacation that turns into a nightmare. Five minutes after getting off a Ryanair plane on July 31, Rebecca McCurry, a 22-year-old woman from Lochgilphead in Scotland, realizes that she has left her passport on her airplane seat. "I mentioned it to an airport staff member, who assured me it was not a problem and that they would notify Ryanair. I replied that I was willing to retrieve it myself, but that they would not let me back on the plane. Over time, I started to panic. Then a Ryanair staff member came back and said they had searched the entire plane, but it was not there," says the British tourist to Daily Mail. This is the beginning of her nightmare.

Rebecca will be apprehended and then questioned by border police. "I knew it was impossible. I was taken to be questioned by four police officers. They were not nice. They were intimidating and mocking me. They kept calling me ’little girl’." After three hours of questioning, Rebecca claims she was abandoned in a fast-food restaurant serving chicken. "I was told I was being deported, but there might not be another flight back to Edinburgh for at least five days. I didn’t understand, because the plane I had arrived on - the one going back to Edinburgh - was still grounded after nearly two hours. [...] Honestly, it was terrifying. I didn’t feel human at all. It was just crazy. After about three hours, they left me in a fast-food restaurant - a real Moroccan KFC. [...] They offered me chicken, which I can’t eat because I’m a vegetarian," adds the young woman.

Rebecca had a hard time with this situation, as she suffers from chronic pain. "I had muscle spasms and I was passing out from the stress and pain. I fainted several times. Since I look able-bodied, I think they may not have believed me - or they didn’t want to believe me." After 11 hours of detention, the British tourist comes up with an idea to get home. "I told them I had spoken to an immigration lawyer. I lied. I don’t have an immigration lawyer. But after telling them that, they immediately put me on the plane. [...] They deported me to Manchester and my father drove six hours to come get me," she continues. But it took her an additional month of research after the incident to finally retrieve her passport in August.

A friend who was taking the return flight to Edinburgh was able to retrieve her passport on the plane. "My friend’s family was on the return flight and they found it. It was exactly where I had left it. I told them to keep it. But the Ryanair staff took it from them. I then spent over a month trying to contact them. Finally, I had to go to the airport myself and pay 30 pounds to get my passport back." Rebecca says she tried to contact Ryanair to file a complaint, but was unable to do so. A traumatic experience for the young woman. "Overall, [this experience] has made me extremely anxious. And I’m really afraid to fly again. Recently, I took a flight for a trip, hoping to face my fear. But I was terrified; I kept thinking about the deportation."

A Ryanair spokesperson confirms that Rebecca did indeed leave her passport on her seat on the plane. "This passenger misplaced her passport on her Edinburgh to Marrakech flight on July 31 and was subsequently denied entry to Marrakech. As required by the Marrakech authorities, Ryanair rebooked this passenger on the next available flight back to the UK later that day." He continues: "In this case, the passenger was required to present a passport on arrival at Marrakech airport, which she failed to do, and she was rightly denied entry to the country. Ryanair returns all found items to the lost property office at each airport. Once this passenger’s passport was found by the crew, it was returned to the lost property office at Edinburgh airport."