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.

Unfortunately your hopes will be dashed as people with a G in front of your username will be taking umbrage at Johnny Foreigner daring to enforce laws Johnny didn't vote for, but the salty pigs arse doing the shouting did vote for.

>The blame brexit crowd don't let facts get in the way of their agenda.

And Brexiteers keep proving their ignorance by refusing to accept that increasing checks will increase delays. No-one is saying the queues are entirely due to Brexit but to pretend Brexit has not made them worse is dumb.

For some reason we've not yet taken control of our borders and instigated import checks. When we fulfil our legal obligations and instigate those today's queues will be insignificant.

This is a regular occurrence in France. They are often understaffed. Weird how some people have such loathing for their own country they can’t bear criticism of another.

Of course it is the French fault. I flew into Paris pre-brexit and had to wait two hours to get through EU passport control. That wasn't the fault of Brexit either. We were outside schengen so passports were always checked. When there are huge queues at passport control at Heathrow then that is clearly the UK's fault - the passport held by those in the queue is neither here nor there.

Spot on!

We're travelling around Europe by train, no delays at St Pancras, we had massive delays between Amsterdam and Berlin: staffing issues, no buffet for 7 hour journey, these things happen!

I think it's brilliant that borders are finally checking passengers. It's not brexits fault, it's the lack of forethought and planning. These dimwit in local authorities seem to be employed despite being total and utter morons.

@AndreaC74

You've proven my point that you don't understand the basis of the French controls in Dover (and Calais/Coquelles/Folkestone/St Pancras...)

Under the 2003 Le Touquet Treaty the border controls (immigration only in the case of Dover/Calais) provide for immigration checks to take place outbound by both UK and French authorities. This is why you go through a UK then French control at Dover, or a French and then UK control in Calais.

The UK government is responsible for providing the infrastructure and resource for its controls on both sides, and the French are responsible for their controls (actually the donit on behalf of Schengen given it is the entry to that region).

Now, do you want to rethink your argument? No, of course not!

I've never gone to France via Dover so genuine question. Did they need to stamp all the passports before Brexit? How did border control work?

"we should be in the EU because it makes my holiday easier"

@CockadoodleDoosPooh The booths have up to 2 people on them, I probably should have worded it that there was only one line closed, they had 11 French passport controllers stamping passports at 6am.

I’ve travelled out of the U.K. three times on the less 12 months, including twice to the EU - Malta and Lisbon. On both of those occasions getting into the EU country took no longer than previously. In Malta they change the signs on the passport control lines dependent on the planes that are coming in. So if it’s a U.K. plane, more U.K. lines and less EU lines. In Lisbon, I could use the same E gates as the Aussies and a few other countries. I was actually through quicker than the Portuguese on the same plane as I travelled Tap Portugal so the passengers were mainly Portuguese and the EU line was a lot longer!

Are people going to spend the rest of their lives blaming everything on Brexit. Covid has had a far more significant impact. Lots of places across Europe and beyond are struggling with staffing issues in airports etc. Michael O’Leary was complaining about the staffing problems at U.K. airports being caused by Brexit. A few days later I spoke to a French colleague and asked her how her recent trip to Dublin was. She mentioned that there were delays at Dublin airport due to staffing issues! That did bemuse me…wonder if Michael O’Leary would like to comment on that!

As other people have commented, long delays at Dover have been a regular occurrence for years. I have family in France and they avoid the Calais Dover route wherever possible.

The problem of course with some border controls is that there is no way to separate, say, EU from non-EU passport holders. At an airport it's generally quite easy, and you'll often walk past huge queues of people with non-UK, EU, AUS, CDN etc passports if you fly in to large UK airports. At Dover you have no chance, so the queue will build up really quickly.

You always had to show you had passports, we accidentally waved 5 at a crossing (France into UK) on the French side because one of our DC had a toy rabbit with a "passport" which looked a lot like a real one from the outside. Back then they only registered that we waved a fistful of passports at them and waved us through. As they did with all the cars in front of and behind us. Now they'd have to look at each one, possibly stamp it (or check other form of ID for residency reasons) and then go on to the next one.

If French border control people are sick, they don't work - or do you want them to be forced to check passports?

Germany has about 20 million more citizens than the UK and each state starts the long holidays at a different time to help mitigate this kind of build up at the start of the holidays. The queues are still horrendous though.

Yep.

Not sure what the idiots that voted for this have to complain about?

@KingOfRockAndRoll Gammonites!

Ah no, I might have to find a different fossil name.

Seriously? Disgusting that yet more lies are being reported. Holding a referendum (why?) , and then lying, posting untrue propaganda, in order to get votes should have been seen as a criminal act. Cannot believe that any politician who genuinely cared would do this. Short selling would have made the already rich a fortune.
Why no referendums on other issues? Presumably because we trust the government to have experts in economics. So why did they not make the decision? Because it was wrong. And they could then quote will of the people and blame a decision which could only possibly benefit the rich, whilst punishing anyone else on the the very voters persuaded to leave and "democracy"
Many people will have electricity and gas disconnected this winter. Not due to Brexit but costs for anything other than fuel and energy ARE required directly affected by tariffs having left the EU.

Arriving at Heathrow is a dream now, takes about 10 minutes. Worth brexit just for that. People won't get Iver it, they are the same ones who still mention Thatcher regularly. Lazy politics.

If there are issues with staffing, why don't they do what the airports have done and just cancel loads of crossings ?

And if it happens every year, why is this year classed as a critical incident by the Port Authority ?

Do you have the first clue what you are talking about? It doesn't appear so. What local authorities exactly?

What does the Brexit negotiation have to do with with the French not supplying the number if staff they promised to?

What does the Brexit negotiation have to do with with the French not supplying the number if staff they promised to?

Because you made the point that one shouldn’t agree to something and then renege on that agreement.

Which is exactly what the U.K. has done with the NI protocol.

Its not that hard a point to grasp.

I've never gone to France via Dover so genuine question. Did they need to stamp all the passports before Brexit? How did border control work?

If you had an EU/British passport, there were no further checks. No stamping. No visas. No limits.

Now, you have to have your passport more thoroughly checked. You need to have a visa if you are moving to France, you need a visa if you are going to work in France, you need a visa if you have already spent 90 days in France in the last 180 days....there's more. And that's before we get to all the extra customs rules....

How can anyone imagine it can't take much longer, post Brexit? This is the first proper summer since the end of the Transition period, it was ALWAYS going to be chaos.

Can't blame Brexit on the incompetence of the French.

Can't blame the French for the expected consequences of Brexit.

Of course increased checks take a longer time. Hence Dover port authorities working with the French authorities to increase the number of French officers to do the checks. The French agreed and committed to those numbers and then didn't honour the agreement. To not acknowledge that this is down to the French not honouring commitments is dumb. But you just keep on proving your just as ignorant as Brexiteers. You all deserve each other.

It's imperative for the EU that Britain is made to suffer, and as publicly as possible

If you understand German there are countless interviews with von der Leyen where she says exactly that. YouTube is your friend here.