Port of Dover Critical Incident

[AndreaC74]

Why are we blaming the french? they didn't vote for Brexit and aren't responsible for increasing/paying for extra capacity at the French border posts on UK soil.

Stamping passports is what happens to 3rd country nationals & that adds time, a lot of it, when dealing with 100s of '000s of passengers, plus having recently been to France, i ve seen UK people arguing with French officials because they don't want their passports stamped!

The UK seems incapable of organising anything at the moment, the numbers travelling across the channel is entirely predictable and delays we are now seeing were talked about pre 2016, i remember seeing the graphs on how long the queues would be for just a few seconds of delay for each passenger.... all Project Fear.

Point is freedom of movement works both ways!

Er...

Where to start.

Brexit removed our freedom to move around the EU, so now we have to go through passport control and have our passports stamped.

@MarshaMelrose I ve acknowledged that its possible the French didn't all turn up for work... but anecdotally, that may actually be untrue.

However, even with all booths manned, the number of travellers involved would have overwhelmed these extra numbers.

Aside, as you appear to know everything - perhaps you know where these French border officials reside? how do they get to Dover? Do they live locally or in France, perhaps using a delayed ferry to get to Dover? or stuck in queues in Kent...

I think this little known fact hasn't yet dawned on many Brexitiers

I can’t find any reference to industrial action in the French Press and as has been pointed out Covid is still around, so there could be sickness issues.

Given it has never been possible to predict the numbers of booths the PAF (Border Police) will have open at our local airport on any day at any given time I wouldn’t be rushing into any thoughts of conspiracies….

A lot of them live about 20 minutes down road apparently @AndreaC74

*I'm not sure we can blame it all on Brexit. Look at the chaos in our own airports since Covid. The airlines and airports laid off thousands of staff because demand has been tiny for the last two years. Now demand is back, they have failed spectacularly to replace staff in time.

It seems reasonable that the same has happened in France. It just proves that they are as hopeless at forward planning as is the UK. It's hardly a surprise*

Did you see Panorama? The Eu furloughed their staff. And used the money saved from wages to upgrade their airports. Baggage now takes 30% less time to come through than it did previously.

Meanwhile back in Blighty, we’re still using Stevensons Rocket….

But you can't have controls on EU nationals entering the UK without there being comparable controls on UK nationals entering the EU. That's the flipside of 3rd country status, which is what we now have.

This was explained ad nauseam in the run-up to the referendum. If you chose to ignore the warnings, you only have yourself to blame.

We've always had to go through passport control! To stamp all our 4 family passports it took an extra second! It's the busiest day of the year with schools breaking up and the great British getaway and only half the booths manned. That's the issue!

No queues on the other side. 100% Brexit.

You're far too sensible for MN, if one isn't blaming Brexit and/or the government then one isn't singing from the correct hymn sheet! We lived in Germany for years and would avoid the French ports like the plague, on the occasion we had to use them there were often contrived delays. Before someone gets on their hind legs, I didn't vote for it!

Short staffed on French side, last day of school so massive surge in demand and there's queues at Dover . Honestly we were all going to die of sun stroke Tue you must let the media whip you up so much.

Well I voted for ending freedom of movement to stop foreigners coming here and taking our jobs and living on benefits. I did not vote to make any changes for me going on holiday

Is this genuine? How could anyone not realise what was going to happen?😂

Is this one of the benefits that the ghastly Rees-Mogg is championing? It’s all down to Brexit but the Brexiteers refuse to recognise the fact.

I have been going to France every year, for the past 20 years to visit family. I can honestly say, hand on heart that there have always been issues with French border controls, protests in the port, lorry drivers blocking the port, protests and queues in Boulogne and Calais - it's not a new thing. If they are displeased or irked about something, they'll cause a scene, they have a revolutionary nature. They throw their toys out the pram if they're pissed off and blockade things, cause a public nuisance and generally disrupt travel, mostly at the ports.

Been the way since year dot

Then they should have told the Dover port authorities upfront so they could take preventative action.

What could they have done, @MarshaMelrose ? They don't have the power to employ more French immigration officials.

jgw does posts that are v tongue in cheek. I’m always being taken in by them.

The UK is determined to not honour much bigger commitments it made to the EU, I don't think they can complain if the EU does the same in a very much smaller context.

You think maybe they have covid related staffing issues same as the airlines and airports?

So which is it? Deliberate plan to break commitments or covid?

Yes it is all Mogg's fault. Nothing to do with French staffing at all.

@luckylavender

The queues on the other side happen at the end of the holidays...

Do you understand what losing ‘freedom of movement’, actually means?

‘the process of entering the EU from the UK has been changed directly because of Brexit’

Prior to leaving the EU, people with British Passports didn’t need to go through these border checks. Those lanes existed but were only for non EU nationals.

Now that the U.K. is a non EU country, the British people have to queue for security checks the same as people from America, Africa, Asia etc…

Why should France waste money employing more people because the Brits don’t like queueing and believe they should be given special treatment?

Presumably the situation is the same for EU nationals queuing in France to go to Britain. What would you say if French nationals queuing in France demanded that the British employ more staff?

And for the record again, it wasn’t a fucking democratic vote!

Thousands of British nationals living and working in EU countries were denied the vote, if they’d lived in the EU country for more than 10 years. People employed by companies with bases across Europe. British people who are multi-lingual and who’s livelihoods rely on collaborative working with colleagues from other countries.

These British people who have been thoroughly SHAFTED by Brexit.

Not your average thicko Sun reader, for sure! 🤦🏻‍♀️

Fuck me, Brexiteers are seriously hard of thinking! 🤦🏻‍♀️

If you’re a British passport holder, you will go straight through the British security channels when coming back to Britain. D’uh!

Yet pre brexit, Dover managed ok unless industrial action, terrorism which isn't the case now ...
Apparently there are less people travelling by ferry today than on the equivalent day in 2019...

So, you at the back, yes you with the England flag & the red face, Can you tell me what has changed?

There are always queues at Dover the start of the sumer hols. If the French only have half their passport controls open can you not see how this will impact?

Its always the 'thick Sun readers' fault isn't it. I wonder what the media will decide is tomorrow's outrageous disaster?

@Léighméleabhair

And for the record again, it wasn’t a fucking democratic vote!
Thousands of British nationals living and working in EU countries were denied the vote, if they’d lived in the EU country for more than 10 years. People employed by companies with bases across Europe. British people who are multi-lingual and who’s livelihoods rely on collaborative working with colleagues from other countries.

Good point, well made