Friday’s chaos, which led to Dover being declared a critical incident, was caused by a lack of staff from France at the nine passport booths in the Kent town, an accident on the M20 and higher than expected numbers of tourists traveling through the port. .
However, Natalie Elphicke, Tory MP for Dover, said the delays were not just about staffing, but also the “unnecessarily slow and detailed way” French border officers were checking passports.
“The French should not be so burdened. What is needed is a common-sense approach with fast passport controls that better reflect the risk profile of working families going on their summer holidays,” he told The Telegraph.
Tim Loughton, Tory MP for East Worthing and Shoreham and a member of the Commons home affairs committee, said it was “entirely a French capacity issue”, adding: “If it takes much longer to seal passports, why not have them all? from their full-time staffed stands or provide additional staff to man additional stands.”
Tony Smith, a former director general of the Border Force, said not all EU member states were stamping UK travelers even though they were designated as coming from a third country. He suggested there could be contingencies to prevent a repeat of Friday’s chaos.
“The UK border and other borders around the world have contingency measures to deal with exceptional circumstances where certain controls could be waived with the authorization of a senior officer,” he said.
Toby Howe, senior director of roads at Kent County Council and tactical leader of the Kent Resilience Forum, said next weekend, the second busiest summer holiday break, was likely to be “very busy”.
“As we have just discovered the weekend has just passed, the number of traffic crossing the Channel is back to pre-pandemic levels and, with the increased controls, it is slower to get through, so it takes very little to cause these reductions,” he said. said
A Department for Transport source said Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, was in regular contact with Clement Beaune, his French counterpart, adding: “Ultimately, the best way to deal with these issues is through dialogue pragmatic, getting assurances from the border police. staffing levels and the like. The less sound and fury, the more they fix it.”