France pointed the finger. The British port of Dover on Friday July 22 accused the French authorities of “ruin the vacation“many families due to insufficient customs staff, leading to huge queues in the south-east English town.”LThe staff (French) is insufficient and far from what is necessary to ensure a smooth first summer weekend“, said the Port of Dover in a press release.
“French customs let us down this morning“, regretted the director of the port, Doug Bannister, on the BBC (article in English), evoking a “critical incident“. He advised passengers to “refrain from coming to port for the time being” due to huge queues, with tourists and goods trucks stuck on the roads of the region. A ferry operator operating routes from Dover to Calais also advised travelers on Twitter to allow at least four hours for the boarding and border control.
MAJOR DOVER PORT | Please allow 4 hours to complete the check in process & border controls at the Port. Please be rest assured that upon arrival at check-in, we will accommodate you onto the next available sailing pic.twitter.com/x28WV20Zuo
— DFDS UK Updates (@DFDSUKUpdates) July 22, 2022
“I booked the 8am ferry from Dover and it’s total traffic jam. I advanced 50 meters in an hour. At this rate, it will take me 34 hours before I reach the port“one netizen tweeted shortly before 7 a.m. Another, from south-west England, was due to travel to the port of Dover on Friday with his 87-year-old mother, but eventually gave up on the idea.”I am taking my elderly mother to see friends in Germany so I have a very long drive to the other side when we arrive“, he explained. “I couldn’t risk being stuck in a queue for four hours without a toilet“.
“French customs personnel have arrived and traffic is slowly resuming“, said the port in the early afternoon. “But it will take time before the traffic jam ends.“
On the French side, the regional prefect Georges-François Leclerc assured that “The increase in traffic this weekend had obviously been anticipated and a suitable device had been prepared”. But “an unforeseeable technical incident at the Channel Tunnel led the border police” french to “delay the desired full operational capacity by one hour”continues the press release, without further details.
“Finally, the French authorities point out that the fluidity of flows at the port of Dover is the joint responsibility of a set of players, including in particular the shipping companies, the port of Dover and the British authorities.he added in a tweet posted on Friday afternoon. They will continue to work closely with all of them in order to manage in the most efficient way the exceptional flows expected in the days to come.”
#Information Traffic around the port of #Dover
The prefect of the North defense and security zone, prefect of the Hauts-de-France region, prefect of the North, communicates: pic.twitter.com/b2rGJa7QUB
– Prefecture of the Hauts-de-France and North region (@prefet59) July 22, 2022