Ryanair turns away fugitive Ukrainian family who couldn’t print their boarding passes in advance

Low-cost airline Ryanair is said to have turned away a fleeing Ukrainian family hoping to arrive safely in the UK after they were uprooted from their bombed-out home in Kyiv because they were unable to print their boarding passes in advance.

It was reported that since the family could not print their boarding passes in advance, check-in staff demanded a boarding pass reissue fee of £50 ($65) which they did not have the funds to pay because they left their country with nothing. .

Venera Muminova, 30, her husband Azamat, 31, and two-year-old daughter Kamila obtained emergency visas late last week from the Interior Ministry. As part of the Homes for Ukraine scheme, the family was offered accommodation by hosts Michelina and Richard Primrose in Nottingham, UK.

En route to London Stanstead, the Muminovas were detained for nearly two hours by airline staff, who questioned Azamat, a Ukrainian citizen, about his Turkmen passport and British refugee visa, according to the Daily Mail. The family then missed their flight from Poland to London due to the delay.

Luckily, Venera was able to call the host family to explain the situation and the Primroses agreed to pay the charges by credit card over the phone.

Michelina Primrose, a support worker at a children’s hospice, told the Daily mail that she was ‘disgusted’ by Ryanair’s handling of the family’s situation.

“Their daughter was in the hospital for dehydration a few weeks ago and I know how quickly children can deteriorate,” Michelina said. “We contacted the family on Facebook about a month ago and managed to get them through the visa process, which was not easy.”

“They don’t have much money and we were happy to pay for their flights, but now we’ve had to pay double that, around £550 [$720]because of the theft this morning,” she continues.

A Ryanair spokesperson said: “Ryanair welcomes thousands of Ukrainian refugees on its flights from neighboring countries Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and Poland. As a Turkmen citizen, Mr Muminov was not a “Ukrainian refugee”, and we sincerely regret the visa difficulties encountered by this Turkmen citizen at Krakow airport, but we repeat that he was not charged a boarding pass reissue fee and the only reason he missed his early morning departure from Krakow was the time it took to check his Turkmen passport and visa to travel to the UK.

Ryanair has since offered to reimburse the Primroses’ expenses.

Related: These black women have partnered with Airbnb.org and raised money to help black people flee Ukraine

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