On Friday the port of Dover declared a critical incident and warned passengers to allow at least six hours to clear travel checks and board a ferry.
A spokesman for the port said: “Despite the Port of Dover… preparing over several months for the busy summer period, we are deeply frustrated that the resource at the French border overnight and early this morning has been woefully inadequate.”
French officials, however, said that although technical problems on the Channel Tunnel meant that some of their agents were an hour late to work, the smooth running of the port was a joint responsibility between British and French authorities and the shipping companies.
So what was really to blame?
Brexit
We hate to be bad sports and bring this up . . . but Brexit is having an impact on travel from the UK to France.
The Brexit transition period ended in January 2021, and since then most Brits coming into France must have their passports stamped on entry, while any pets travelling also have new paperwork requirements, namely the Animal Health Certificate.
Travel to France: What has changed since Brexit?
EU import rules mean that items including foodstuffs and DIY implements being brought into France may be subject to extra checks, although these are generally done on an ad hoc basis.
Although the new regime has been in place for some time, the pandemic means that passenger numbers have been unusually low since January 2021 – this summer is the first time that peak passenger numbers and post-Brexit rules have combined.
Longer than usual waits have also been reported on several other travel routes as the summer begins.
British media reported that the UK government rejected a proposal to expand the area for French border checks at Dover, while Pierre-Henri Dumont, the French MP whose constituency includes the port of Calais, said that the UK government had rejected “a few months ago” a proposal to double the number of French passport control booths at Dover.
No need to blame French authorities for the traffic jams in #Dover: that’s an aftermath of #Brexit. We have to run more and longer checks.
The British government rejected few months ago a proposal to double the number of passport booths given to the French Police in Dover.
— Pierre-Henri Dumont (@phdumont) July 23, 2022
Covid checks
Speaking of the pandemic, France still requires that passengers must be either fully vaccinated, or have a negative Covid test in order to enter the country.
Passengers can show either a QR code on their health app (either the French Tous Anti Covid or the British NHS app) or a paper certificate at the border.
Checking of the health pass for passengers from the UK has been varied, but many passengers have reported that checks have become more rigorous in the past few weeks, as France battles a seventh wave of cases.
Passenger volumes
As mentioned before, passenger volumes across Europe are largely either back at pre-pandemic levels or higher, as people enjoy their first foreign holidays in two years.
Summer holidays
This weekend was always likely to be particularly busy since most English and Welsh schools have broken up this week, while Scottish and French schoolchildren are already on holiday, leading to a peak time to travel.
M20 crash
The M20 motorway that takes passengers to both Folkestone for the Eurotunnel and Dover to the port was closed for a portion of Friday afternoon because of a serious collision, with traffic diverted into the town of Dover, causing further congestion.
The #M20 J11 eastbound entry slip road is now OPEN.
This means that traffic can now access Eurotunnel @LeShuttle .
However the road remains closed eastbound J11 (Westenhanger/Hythe) and J12 and blocked westbound. There are SEVERE delays in both directions. pic.twitter.com/pFityQtpJv
— National Highways: South-East (@HighwaysSEAST) July 22, 2022
The French?
Due to the Le Touquet agreement, all security checks for passengers coming to France take place in the UK – meaning that passengers pass through checkpoints staffed by British officials, and then proceed to the French checkpoints.
Since Brexit, the French checks have involved extra paperwork – as is the case for all external EU borders.
Dover MP Natalie Elphicke said there had been “weeks of preparation”, much of it with French counterparts, for the beginning of the tourist season.
“Despite all this, French border officers didn’t turn up for work at the passport controls as needed. This has caused massive delays,” she said.
“More French officers are reported to be arriving.”
French authorities had a very different take.
Georges-François Leclerc, Préfet of the Nord area of France, said that high demand due to the start of the UK school holidays had been anticipated with extra staffing levels, but that a technical incident in the Channel Tunnel meant that border agents travelling from France to work in Dover were one hour late on Friday morning.
He added that all agents were at their posts by 9.45 am, saying: “At this time, the traffic difficulties in the Channel Tunnel had been resolved, but a very congested road traffic was still observed in British territory, with slowdowns spread over several kilometres.”
He said that “the fluidity of flows at the port of Dover is the joint responsibility of a set of actors, including shipping companies, the port of Dover and the British authorities.”
We wouldn’t claim to be experts on customs staffing levels, but several passengers told us that at least by late afternoon on Friday, all lanes were open for checks from French border agents.
Back in 2019, French officials working on the Eurostar at Gare du Nord staged industrial action where they ‘mocked up’ the kind of checks that they said would be required after Brexit.
They were accused by the British of scaremongering. The resulting queue time was six hours.