A dad was kicked out of Turkey during a family holiday as he had the same name as a man held on terror charges who later had the case against him dropped.
Daniel Burke attempted to travel from Newcastle Airport to Fethiye with his partner, their 15-month-old baby girl and his daughter, 14, and son, nine, from a previous relationship.
The Mirror reported how the 36-year-old's children were left terrified when armed military police hauled the family into a room at Dalaman Airport and questioned Daniel about his "links to Syria".
Read more: Pub chain fined £1.5m after 'amazing' student is crushed outside Durham nightclub
The dad-of-three, who lives in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, said: "They were hammering me about my links to Syria. They were asking when I was last in the country.
"They were wearing guns in holsters, and were very heavy handed. My partner and children were in the room, they were very upset – my eldest was in tears."
Daniel was forced to fly back to the UK after Turkish authorities stamped "cancel" on his passport. By the time he got back, his daughter’s pal had found a story about the other Daniel Burke.
The other Mr Burke was also 36 but he was from Manchester. He had joined the Kurdish YPG militia to fight against Islamic State in Syria after the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing.
Back in the UK, two years later, he was held for eight months on suspicion of "preparing acts of terrorism" but the case was dropped the following year.
Daniel, who works as a photocopy service supervisor, said: "He was a freedom fighter in my view, not a terrorist. But he fought against Turkish forces in the end, that's why my name was on their list.
"I don’t look anything like him and he'll have a different date of birth. I don’t know how many Daniel Burkes there are but I don’t want this to happen to anyone else."
Daniel said he has had no apology from Jet2.
A spokesperson for Jet2 said: "We have no control over decisions made by Turkish immigration authorities.
"However, our teams did all they could to support and assist Mr Burke and his family. We have since reached out to Mr Burke directly to apologise and explain this."
