The family of two UK teenagers evacuated from Lebanon have shared their anger with the Government after their mother was blocked from boarding the flight with them. David Hardie, a 36-year-old from Carluke, South Lanarkshire, told the PA news agency that his siblings Thomas, 19, and Rebecca, 16, caught an evacuation flight chartered by the UK government from Beirut to Birmingham on Wednesday. The teenagers took a 45-minute taxi with their mother Nadia Ayoub McCulloch, 51, from the eastern outskirts of the Lebanese capital to Beirut-Rafic Hariri International Airport, witnessing “debris everywhere” as a result of Israeli bombing.
READ MORE: As Lebanon fighting intensifies, both sides need to step back from the brink Ms McCulloch travelled to the airport and had purchased a ticket for the flight with her children as she hoped she would be able to board the flight – but her family said she was turned away by officials as she does not have a UK passport or visa. Her Scottish husband of 20 years, William McCulloch, 62, told PA: “I just don’t understand it. “We paid for the three seats, she went to the airport, and she was told that she can’t get on the flight because she didn’t have a visa.
“Rebecca organised everything and she may have been told before she left the house (that Ms McCulloch would be unable to board the flight), but she thought she would just go and try because she wanted to go with the kids, but she was told categorically, no.” Mr McCulloch sai.