Six Britons held overnight at Swedish airport after negative Covid test is declared invalid

Six British citizens who arrived in Sweden on a flight from Manchester on Sunday were detained overnight in an unused arrivals lounge likened to a “jail” after their negative Covid-19 tests were rejected as invalid by border guards.

They were part of a larger group of around a dozen people who were told they couldn’t enter the country after landing in Gothenburg airport because their PCR tests had not been conducted by an authorised provider, despite being given no prior warning of that requirement.

"I feel I've been really treated diabolically," said British citizen Gina Smart, a 25-year-old teacher, who by 6pm on Monday had been trapped in the airport for more than 24 hours.

She said she was kept outside for an hour in -3C temperatures, left to sleep in a bare lounge, and denied food or bottled water for five hours.

Border guards also rummaged through her luggage, she added. "I said, 'why are you doing this?' And they said, 'because you're like every other country now - like Turkey'."

When the plane landed, only Swedish citizens were allowed to leave their seats, she said. Citizens of other countries were told they could only enter Sweden if they could show a negative coronavirus test less than 72 hours old from the UK's list of authorised providers.

While most of those travelling had been aware of the PCR requirement, all were unaware it had to be from a specific provider - information that she said had been on neither the British embassy's website, nor on that of the Swedish police.

Miss Smart, who is in the process of applying for Swedish residency, estimated that about 12 people's tests were rejected, of which around six agreed to stay on the plane and return to Manchester.

The rest were then left to stand outside for more than an hour in temperatures of around -3C, she said.

"From the offset we were treated incredibly poorly," said British citizen Lauren Braithewaite, 32, who is also applying for Swedish residency. "It felt like the police were using tactics to break us so we would give in and agree to taking a flight back to the UK."

At 9pm, three British citizens, a Norwegian citizen and a Cypriot woman were admitted to a disused lounge, while a British couple and their two-year-old daughter were taken elsewhere.

The five kept in the lounge had to wait five hours before they were offered food, and were initially given only cold water with which to make tea, which they had to microwave.

"It was just really demoralising, they were just completely trying their best to make me feel low, degrade me, just to make it really clear that I was from a 'third country'," Miss Smart said.

At 12pm on Monday, Miss Braithewaite and another woman were allowed to leave when the Swedish authorities decided to accept their PCR test, which had been carried out by the National Health Service.

By 6pm on Monday, Miss Smart was still waiting to see if her negative PCR test, given by a private company not included on the list of authorised providers, would be enough for her to gain entry.