I had to pay £780 at the airport after making simple passport mistake

A WOMAN was forced to fork out £780 at the airport after making a simple passport mistake.

Monique Sutherland, from Australia, was heading to Bali with her mum on holiday.

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After arriving at Tullamarine Airport in Melbourne, Ms Sutherland was told she had to sign a blue form at the check in desk because her passport was dirty.

This is because Bali has strict rules about passports being damaged or dirty, with a number of holidaymakers already banned from their flights because of it.

However, after arriving in Bali, Ms Sutherland said she was pulled into a small interrogation room after landing and showing the blue form.

She told local media: “Officials continued to come in and out and question me for over an hour – I was hysterical and petrified.”

Staff then told her that her passport was too damaged and she had to pay AUD$1500 (£780) to sort the issue out.

Ms Sutherland said this was despite her passport already being stamped when she entered the country and was accepted.

When she refused to pay, she said they then approached her 60-year-old mother to pay.

They decided to cough up the steep amount and then were allowed to leave the airport, although said it was a “traumatic experience” before their holiday.

She later said that after speaking to officials in Melbourne, she didn’t think she should have been charged at all.

Ms Sutherland added: “The entire holiday was spent stressing about this experience and researching whether my passport was acceptable.

“My passport was never the real issue. I really didn’t expect this [and it was] so traumatic.”

She isn’t the first person this has happened to when travelling to Bali.

Madelaine Cownie was due to fly to Bali with Australian airline Jetstar and spent more than a grand on her flights, only to be told she couldn’t fly at the airport because her passport had a small tear.

And Matt Vandenberg was forced to fly home from Bali after he was banned from entering on arrival due to his passport.

The new rules were introduced back in 2019 for anyone travelling to Bali.

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