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.

People will just stop going to France on holiday if they're making it so hard for Brits to get into the country. It's just spite IMO. The French should have put on extra staff for what they knew would be a busy weekend. All the people stuck in Kent could be spending money in France right now. So it's totally counterproductive.

People who go to France and Europe in their car over summer holidays are very likely to keep going.

It's great to see European countries, to travel freely between countries and to spend time over there.

It's a pain waiting at borders but well worth it when you get there.

No, we won't stop going to France. The majority of us will just get more savvy about when and how we travel, aided with any luck by putting a sensible Labour government in power that is able to negotiate constructively with the EU rather than indulging in lies and ridiculous posturing.

Why would they care? There are plenty of tourists from other parts of Europe, and it takes much less hassle to process them at the borders.

No need for them to devote time and money hiring people to work on the UK/France border, to solve problems created by Brexit. They can hire the number of people they feel is sufficient. If that causes problems for Britain, tough luck. People can stay here and holiday, or go elsewhere, surely. I don't think we'll be particularly missed in France! it'll settle to a natural conclusion, with them devoting the number of staff to this border that it warrants in terms of their overall tourism/immigration policy.

We bloody care about brexit.... It has not 'come and gone'

Am part of an anglo-european couple - partner is dual national, I'm not. I can't get an EU passport as I'd have to live in siad country for years to attain it.

All our dreams of moving overseas(med) for retirement in the next decade have been destroyed. It would help my health massively.

We can't afford the medical care I need now in EU countries

But hey as long as blue passport.... You've got NO idea of the chaos and utter rubbish you've caused.
Brexit will have ramifications for decades. I really hope you see this.

Batflu?

Brexit…things going wrong on a macro basis, going wrong on a micro basis…

I hope the passport staff get to work on time today - the first Saturday of the England school holidays is going to be busy at the port

What empty shelves? I have shopped in 2 different EU countries this week and the shelves were full

People will just stop going to France on holiday if they're making it so hard for Brits to get into the country.

While I find this pretty unlikely anyway (it's not as if flying anywhere has been particularly easy this year either), as I mentioned upthread, France is the most popular tourist destination in the world. It could easily manage a drop in UK visitor numbers.

This data is a few years old but it's interesting

"France inbound tourism statistics suggest that tourists entering France is on the increase. The global number of visitors has more than doubled in the past 15 years, resulting in France now aiming for 100 million foreign tourists in 2020. There is no doubt that visitors from other European countries make up a large proportion of the tourists in France with 70 million out of the 90 million visitors being from European countries.

The United Kingdom is ranked as the leading international market with 12.7 million UK tourists arriving in France in 2017. The biggest increase in the number of tourists came from the Asian market, with a 7.4% rise from the previous year in 2018.
2019 got off to a rocky start due to yellow vest protests, however, the French government said there had only been increases in tourists’ revenues in January & February 2019.

www.condorferries.co.uk/france-tourism-statistics

It's also the gateway to Europe for many drivers. So I hope that we can all work together to improve the situation.

I read the Sun and Mail each day thank you very much.

Surely you need to read the Express as well?

Actually you are mistaken in one aspect.
Prior to the referendum campaigns getting into action I was convinced we should leave the EU. Having seen the racists who were campaigning for leave I could not bring myself to vote the same way as them.

Dover update

The BBC's Simon Jones said at 07:00 BST on Saturday it was taking motorists two hours to travel the last mile of the route to the port and another couple of hours to get through French passport control before boarding.

And it's only 7am.....

Well this is strange.

There is gridlock today. I thought that the passport staff would be here today - so maybe there is something else going on today?

Still gridlocked? I'd consider travelling another day

Most of France’s tourism comes from its own people. The country is huge and gorgeous. There is a mass exodus every year to the south. They wouldn’t miss us, they will also pick up more and more tourism from those countries lucky enough to still be in the EU and joining. It isn’t just in trade we’re going to be increasingly isolated. It’s only just the beginning.

We will miss France far more than they will
miss us. Going on a cheap package elsewhere isn’t comparable on so many levels-culture, varied scenery, food, language….cost.You can holiday for every budget in France, travel there for a family is cheap, you don’t need car hire and are able to bring lots with you. Flights and holidays elsewhere are going to rocket. For many France is the difference between having a holiday and not.

@Justanotherlurker Firstly pulling people up on their spelling is against MN rules, you should report that, personally don't agree with that.

Critical Thinking? Perhaps more Cause and Effect? 1000s of cars, extra border checks/not enough booths = Delays.

Pre this weekend, there were 8, Dover added in 4 extra, clearly not enough staffed or not.

Dover managed ok pre Brexit, with these extra checks, they are not, of course they had their moments due to external factors such as Terrorism.

I see Truss is demanding the French sort out extra staffing, i wonder what the UK response would be if France demanded extra UK staff to sort out an issue they created?
Might be better if instead of feathering her own nest, she d been working with the French to have 20 extra booths? with the UK offering to pay for all costs.

As for EU Supermarkets, been to Mallorca/Spain and France for totally of 6 weeks over the last 3 months and please be assured they are very well stocked, in fact some of the choices shame many a UK store.

I can imagine there will be demands from the MP for Dover to sort out the congestion in the town.

Perhaps Truss will demand the French pay for the new by-pass? after they have caused this mess..... in her mind.

@jgw1 loving your work

**
Just to let anyone travelling today aware the motorway is now shut and the surrounding towns and villages are gridlocked
*

As I've seen it over the years when travelling there are roughly speaking three generic types of Border Control.

Type 1 is no checks - e.g. Schengen to Schengen - no routine checks.

Type 2: light touch - e.g. UK, when in EU, into Schengen - usually cursory checks to documentation. Usually a relatively quick process.

Type 3: Hard ball - e.g. UK into US, Aus etc - Full document check, customs checks etc.

The latter quite often results in long delays at immigration, especially at peak times, especially at some very busy ports of entry (JFK, SYD), even when all the booths are manned up.

We as a nation have volunteered to go from a type 2 to a Type 3 when travelling UK> EU, and even with the best will in the world and all facilities running 100% I'm not sure you'll ever be able avoid significant delays at peak periods, even when the system gets bedded in.

For some it's just maybe a case of that Joni Mitchell song and not knowing what they've lost until it's gone.

Regardless of all the above hopefully everybody at Dover can work to at least minimise any disruption.

Looks busy

www.trafficengland.com/