Aside from the detrimental health effects of being overweight, one of the other main changes one experiences when they pack on the kilos is the obvious change of appearance.

Infact most people raise more then eyebrow when they see someone they haven’t seen in a while who has undergone a sizeable weight change. In the extreme cases there might even be shock at the change of appearance.

I know this has happened to me personally but thankfully it’s never extended past the ‘holy crap’ gaping mouth open stage.

With this change in appearance comes the obvious need to maintain anything that relies on your physical identity. Doctors records, a photo ID for work perhaps and of course if you’re using it – your passport.

What should be common sense to most seems to have been oblivious to one Derrick Agyeman. So much so that after being refused re-entry into Britain after a weekend away, he’s now suing in an attempt to try and make a buck off it.

Agyeman travelled out of the UK back in 2006 using a passport photo that was at least nine years old. Then, after a weekend trip to Amsterdam to visit friends was refused re-entry because he didn’t look like his passport photo.

Specifically because of ‘because of differences in the thickness of the his ears and lips‘. Whilst that might not sound like much, there’s also the fact that since the passport was taken Agyeman had also put on 31kg.

When you hand an official your passport they’ve got nothing else to go on bar your photo that the passport actually belongs to you. Infact this passport check is what we pay the officials for.

Upon being rejected, Agyeman was then banished back to the Amsterdam where he had to wait three months before being allowed back in.

What this hold up is  I have no idea as you’d think a few phonecalls could easily sort this out. Well, unless of course there was no recent photo evidence of Agyeman or some other such.

Currently living overseas I’d like to think if I fronted to the Australian embassy I’d be able to get any identification issues sorted out quite promptly.

Not happy with his treatment, Agyeman took Britain’s Foreign Office to court and lost. Not happy with the outcome he appealed and… well, he lost again.

As far as I know it’s the passport owners responsibility to ensure that you look like the photo on your passport. Not close to, not reasonably like… but to a near identical replica as you can get it. Your passport photo is supposed to be a representation of yourself and putting on 32kg with 9 years on the clock isn’t going to be a resemble anything remotely accurate.

One quick look in the mirror should have established that.

Whilst I do agree that perhaps the official procedures for this do need to be looked at as three months does sound a bit excessive, once again it appears we’ve got another case of someone willing to blame everyone but themselves for their misfortune.

When asked about the situation, Agyeman replied

I cry when I think about what happened to me.

It’d be interesting to know if he’s talking about his treatment by border protection, the fact that he’s put on such an excessive amount of weight, the mistake of not updating his passport photo before leaving or a combination of all three.

I know I’d be pretty devastated if I packed on 31kg.

Agyeman is currently considering a second appeal on the decision, which if it goes ahead, hopefully it’ll fail again. Slackening of airport security to appease one one lazy traveller does seem a bit counter productive to all the effort and money that’s been pumped into the industry.

Infact I’d say the fact that Agyeman was refused re-entry is proof that these guys are doing their job.

Suing them does seem to be a rather fruitless exercise (no pun intended).


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