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Dover queues, checks suspended
French authorities suspended extra EU border checks at the Port of Dover on Saturday after thousands of holidaymakers faced long queues in soaring temperatures, with the port describing the situation as “challenging.”
“French authorities suspended extra EU border checks at Dover on Saturday”
The BBC said travellers had earlier faced up to two hours’ delay reaching the port and up to a further two and half hours to complete processing at the terminal on Saturday morning, before traffic was later described as “free-flowing.”
The Independent reported “total gridlock” outside the Port of Dover as EU border checks were introduced, with ferry passengers waiting hours while they passed through border checks and holiday-makers reporting a further two hours just to get into the port itself.
The Independent also said Saturday was expected to be the port’s busiest day of the year so far, with more than 8,000 travellers forecast to use it, and that the port later said traffic at Dover was “free flowing.”
Voices on the cause
Doug Bannister, chief executive of the Port of Dover, told The Independent that mitigations were put in place “because the congestion was just so severe through the town.”
The BBC quoted Bannister saying, “despite having assurances from authorities, from our government, from the French around how this would work it really was slow processing this morning,” adding, “I think we’re all quite frustrated.”
The Independent reported that at around 9:30am passport control suspended the EU entry-exit system and reverted to analogue stamping of passports to ease queues that had built through the town.
Devdiscourse said French border authorities stopped gathering additional data required of non-EU passengers to speed up processing times as people tried to get away for a three-day weekend, and it quoted driver Jon Lelliot telling the BBC, “It's taken me six hours to get on my ferry today.”
Heat, alerts, and fallout
The Independent said Dover was expected to reach a high of 25 degrees on Saturday and that an amber heat alert is in place for the South East, while the village of Frittenden in Kent hit 30.3 degrees on Saturday.
“Dover was expected to reach a high of 25 degrees on Saturday”
The BBC reported that the May bank holiday was being viewed as a test for new European Union border checks, with biometric checks including fingerprinting and facial scanning due to be introduced for non-EU travellers under the Entry/Exit System (EES).
The BBC said French authorities had not yet switched on the machines for these checks at the port, but border officials at Dover were still having to take details from travellers to enter into a database, leading to longer waits this weekend.
The Guardian said the UK had its hottest day of the year so far on Saturday with the highest temperature of 30.5C recorded in Kent, and it reported that the Met Office issued amber heat health alerts indicating a possible risk to life as well as potential damage to properties, significant travel delays and power cuts until 5pm on Wednesday.
