bilboburgler

Just in case you've missed this item it looks like getting out of Dover to France in a car can take 4 to 15 hours. Looks like France ran out of customs/security staff.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...-checks-france

hetismij2

We were following the story bilbo. I feel for all those poor people.

When we left the UK last month(when France was also in a heightened state of security) the French passport guy didn't even open his window - he just waved us through. Going to the UK from Dunkirk we had our (UK) passports checked, machine read and everything, and we had to open up the camper for security so they could make sure there was no one hiding in the bathroom or under the seats.

I heard the mayor of Calais this morning berating his government because of the situation in Dover.

Alec

The latest is that the queues have disappeared and all operating smoothly. But delay likely at busy periods like weekends.

chartley

My first thought was that the French were "taking back control of their borders", a policy which many in the U.K. say they want their own country to do.

flanneruk

"the French were "taking back control of their borders""

The French immigration barriers at Dover, St Pancras and Folkestone railway terminal are the only land borders France is now able to control.

Though they're theoretically allowed to reinstate movement control at France's infinitely bigger land frontiers with Schengen states, the facilities for inspection have now been removed in a preposterous display of pseudo-solidarity with EU political correctness. There aren't even any "Bienvenue en France" signs on France's main eastern borders any more.

So when the French Prime Minster gets booed in Nice for failing to protect his fellow-citizens, the only "something" his government is able to demonstrate is a programme of pestering travellers from Britain.

It could, of course, ensure the bloody border posts were manned. But it's after July 14, so no doubt its douaniers are all off on holiday somewhere.

Of course, we DO have the satisfaction or realising - as France's stunt-creators obviously don't - that the world's biggest concentration of French voters outside the Hexagon is just 50 miles north of this French official posturing. And they're going to be asked to vote on the hapless Hollande's future in a few months' time.

Wit_Van_Brug

It's ironic that all those who voted to leave the EU were moaning that we need tighter border security and now they are moaning because there is tighter border security.

bilboburgler

yes it has gone through my mind, but this is just failing to manage capacity and as flanner says, the open borders are still there.

Odin

It was the same situation at Dover this time last year, although maybe not for the same reason. There were queues going back for miles. Also we experienced more security ie the car was pulled aside and checked thoroughly.

It was also the same situation on the return journey through Calais, sometimes there are queues for UK border control for miles along the A216. Now that there is high fencing along some of the route, it is less frightening to be at a standstill in your car than in the past.

hetismij2

The French are doing what they should be doing - policing the Schengen border. Most of the time at Dover and Folkestone they don't bother.
When we travelled to the UK it was the end of the half term break and the ferry was packed. There was one UK border force person scanning passports, and three checking every vehicle. That was at Dunkirk so though the queue wasn't too bad, and some missed the boat they were supposed to be on, there was more of a queue than was really necessary.

kerouac

Everybody thinks the Schengen borders should be strengthened, so I really do not see why anybody would be against stricter controls concerning the UK border with the Schengen zone. The UK harbors most of the extremist Muslims in Europe. (Of course they feel so at home there that they rarely visit the continent -- but in any case they are banned from it.)

bilboburgler

no one has an issue with the improved security.

not putting the resources in place is just poor management.

why they want a tight border at one point but completely open borders everywhere else is beyond logic.

"most" don't have the stats, any links?