Thousands of British families on holiday are stuck in queues at the port of Dover, waiting to cross the English Channel to France. Unions, port officials and French authorities blame the queues on Brexit.
Some travelers have had to queue for six hours or more to board the ferry. On Saturday morning, an estimated 3,000 lorries were waiting for their turn. The queues wind for several kilometres through the town of Dover.
Britain's current Foreign Secretary Liz Truss places the blame solely on the French, who she believes have not staffed the border with enough personnel.
Officials on both sides of the Channel, however, deny that understaffing is the cause. Border controls and extra paperwork for freight traffic were reintroduced when Britain left the EU last year, hindering the free movement of people and goods.
Post-Covid testing for Brexit
Queues of lorries have been seen occasionally in Dover since then, but for the first time this summer people can travel freely without Covid restrictions after the pandemic. This puts the situation at a head.
French parliamentarian Pierre-Henri Dumont, whose constituency includes Calais on the French side, calls the travel chaos a consequence of Brexit.
“We have to do more checks than before,” Dumont told the BBC.
Dual controls
The port manager at Dover, Doug Bannister, has previously blamed the French for insufficient staffing but now agrees that Brexit has led to longer ”transaction times.” The Customs and Border Protection Union also believes that the queues are a ”predictable result” of Brexit.
– Now is the time to strike, says Lucy Moreton from the ISU union.
Passengers must pass through both British and French border controls before being allowed to board the ferry.
Source: aftonbladet.se
