Passport Blunder Turns Dream Vacation into Moroccan Nightmare

Rebecca McCurry told the British media GB News that she had been prevented from retrieving her passport, forgotten on a Ryanair plane in Marrakech, and then expelled to Manchester after being subjected to a long interrogation. The Marrakech police prefecture denied these allegations, stating in a press release that the young woman had arrived at Marrakech-Menara airport on July 31 last without a valid travel document, in violation of the law on the entry and stay of foreigners in Morocco.

The British tourist, who was traveling with three friends, said she had immediately informed the airport staff after realizing that she had forgotten her passport on the plane. She said she had offered to go back to the plane to retrieve it, but the Ryanair staff had refused. After that, she said she had undergone "three hours of intense interrogation" that she described as "terrifying", before being forcibly boarded on a return flight to Manchester. "I no longer felt like a person," the British woman indignantly said.

For its part, the Marrakech police prefecture claims to have opened an investigation and reviewed the surveillance cameras at the arrival and boarding points. After verification, the facts alleged by the traveler were not proven and her passport, which she said she had lost on the plane, had not been found, which led to her expulsion to her country of origin, explains the prefecture, which recalls that the entry and stay of foreigners in Morocco remain conditional on the presentation of a valid passport or travel document.