Parents Board Flight for Vacation, Abandoning 10-Year-Old at Airport Because His Passport Was Expired

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A couple is being dragged on social media after an abandoned boy was found at an airport in Barcelona, Spain. The boy didn’t have a proper visa or passport, which led to him being left behind. Instead of making an effort to fix the issue earlier, the parents apparently didn’t think it would be much of a problem. And even once they found it was, they weren’t going to let it stop their vacation.

It’s unknown if they faced or will face any time in jail for their actions. People chimed in to share similar horror stories about children who were left behind.

An air traffic controller at Barcelona’s El Prat airport shared the story on TikTok. “Surreal airport stories!” she captioned the video, which is in Spanish.

In the video, she explained that a 10-year-old boy was discovered alone by airport staff, the Daily Mail translated. They alerted the police, who then took the abandoned boy into custody.

“He told them that his parents were on the plane on their way to their home country, going on vacation,” the woman said. 

Prior to boarding the plane, the parents discovered that the boy’s passport had expired. He also wasn’t able to fly because he had issues with a visa, the woman claimed. Rather than postpone the trip, they arranged for a relative to come pick the boy up from the airport.

The couple was found and taken to the airport’s police station. It is unknown if they were arrested.

@limasin41 Historias de aeropuerto surrealistas!! #aeropuerto #abandono #historytime #flightdispatcher #viralvideos #paratiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii ♬ original sound – Limasin

“I’m an air traffic controller, and as a controller, I’ve seen a lot of things, but this has been completely surreal,” the woman said. 

“I’m amazed to think how parents could possibly leave their 10-year-old son at the terminal because he can’t travel due to documentation issues. They call a relative, who might take half an hour, an hour, or three hours, and they calmly board the flight and leave the child behind,” she continued. 

“As a mother, I’m amazed,” she marveled. 

Commenters shared their own stories of encounters with children being abandoned.

“I was working at a hotel in Menorca,” one person wrote. “A German couple with an 8-year-old boy were waiting to be picked up and taken to the airport. The boy had an accident and had to be taken to the hospital’s emergency room, where he was admitted. The parents returned to Germany and left the boy at the hospital.”

Another person shared: “Am I the only one whose heart sank when I heard they left him there? I don’t understand how they can do such things.”

“Clearly, from the beginning, the child wasn’t going to travel!” someone else pointed out. “How is it that as parents, you don’t check every single requirement or documentation for your children before a trip? Poor little one, when he gets home, what’s surely waiting for him?”