Georgia Toffolo has told of her relief after being released from immigration detention in the Maldives after nine hours.
The former I’m A Celebrity star said she had been “detained” at Male airport because of a problem with her passport, and that she was “so traumatised” by the experience.
Earlier, she posted messages on Twitter and tearful videos on Instagram pleading for help and advice, telling fans she needed an emergency passport because she had a page missing from hers.
“I just don’t know what to do,” Toffolo sobbed in one clip, saying she was not able to leave on any flights but was also not allowed to go into the Maldives.
“Can someone help me?” she asked.
I have been detained at Male airport for a page missing on my passport. I am very scared I don’t know what else to do I have been here for hours. I am not allowed to board a flight home because of my damaged passport but I am also not allowed to leave the airport. Please help
— Georgia Toffolo (@ToffTalks) December 22, 2019
Caron Rohsler, the British ambassador for the Maldives, later reached out to the star on Twitter, saying: “Consular assistance is being provided & I am confident you will soon be enjoying all the delights that Maldives has to offer.
“PM me if you need more info.”
Hello @tofftalks. Thanks to @joolslouise1 for putting us in touch. Consular assistance is being provided & I am confident you will soon be enjoying all the delights that Maldives has to offer. PM me if you need more info.
— Caron Rohsler (@caron_rohsler) December 22, 2019
Toffolo, who is a good friend of Boris Johnson’s father Stanley, posted a lengthy message on Instagram after being released, telling her 1.9 million followers on the site: “I am typing this having just been released from immigration detention! I can’t quite believe it.
“I was genuinely trying to come to terms with spending the next… however long… in an immigration detention centre.
“Thank you so much to everyone who helped me. If I hadn’t posted online I would 100% still be stuck without my passport!
“This scares me because it is such a privilege to have a following on social media – people can hear me. What if I didn’t have a social media following? I can’t bear to think of another girl in the situation I found myself in where no one can hear you.”
Toffolo, 25, said she was “extremely grateful that the British government worked with Maldivian representatives”.
“Pushed by the UK press too (so epic thank you!) Also thank you to Maldivian immigration for letting me in to your beautiful country!” she added.
“In spite of me crying for 9 hours and scaring everyone at the airport, I made some lovely friends (the group of 7 airport guys that didn’t leave me while I was wailing) on reflection they couldn’t leave me, because I was being detained.
“But still they were kind. They ran me through the best bits of the potential prison I was almost spending Christmas in, every cloud etc!
“I even had a laugh with the immigration officers in the end. Oddly excited for the reunion when I leave.”
She advised her fans: “Please everyone check your passports I didn’t realise that 2 pages had fallen out of the centre.
“SO SO traumatised but grateful thank you thank you thank you.
“Toff’s Christmas is back on. On that note wonder what I would have got on Christmas Day in the detention centre?
“Trying to make light of it but it was a really horrible experience.”