A nine-year-old schoolgirl has managed to enter Turkey using a passport that identified her as a pink unicorn.
Officials at Antalya airport even stamped Emily Harris’s travel documents before waving her through customs despite the official photograph showing the face of her favourite stuffed toy.
Her mother and father today admitted they were left stunned after they handed their daughter the wrong passport when they landed to start a week’s holiday in the country.
Welcome to our country: Emily’s documents were even stamped by customs officials in Antalya as she started her holiday
The document young Emily handed over was a Bear Factory passport for a Unicorn toy called Lily Harris.
Her mother Nicky, 43, from Cwmbran, South Wales, said: ‘I didn’t realise until I was putting the passports away. There was a moment of panic when I thought someone would come chasing after us, but nothing.
‘The passport doesn’t even look real – it’s got gold teddy bears on the front and was a completely different size from mine and my husband, Allen’s.
‘The man even asked Emily how old she was, and she told him nine, before he stamped it.’
Unofficial documents: This is the passport used by Emily to get into Turkey (left) which does look a little like the real thing apart from one major difference, it contained a picture of Lily the unicorn
Still smiling: Emily with her beloved toy, but her parents had feared at the time that customs might chase them when they realised their mistake
Officials of all countries are meant to scan passports and cross-check passenger details before allowing entry to their country.
But in this case, it obviously did not happen.
‘The picture ID wasn’t even of Emily, it was of a pink unicorn,’ Mrs Harris said.
‘And to make it worse, the unicorn wasn’t even on holiday with us.
‘We saw the funny side, and laughed at the fact that the officer had even stamped the passport.
‘But at the same time, it’s a worry to any parent, how easy it would be to smuggle a child through customs and into another country.’
