Le cheek! French taunt us over the queues at Dover
Official blames Brexit for travel chaos
THE row over tailbacks at Dover broke out again yesterday when a senior French official blamed Brexit for the chaos.
Francois Decoster suggested the UK could solve the problems by rejoining the EU – or the bloc’s borderless Schengen zone.
He said Britain had gone back 30 years because of the extra passport checks on holidaying families. But the remarks from the vice-president of the HautsdeFrance region, which includes Calais, sparked a furious backlash.
Former foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt accused Paris of under- staffing the border and refusing to consider relaxing border checks.
And a Port of Dover official said: ‘Brexit or no Brexit, what are you trying to achieve with that level of border control?
‘It’s all very well to say you need to be part of Schengen to have light touch control, but do you really? And should you?
‘What realistic threat is posed to the EU’s single market by families going on holiday.’
Only around half of passport booths in the port were manned by French border police on Friday morning. Huge queues quickly built up and it took 24 hours to clear the backlog. Paris insists that Britons – as citizens of a ‘third country’ that has ended free movement – must have their passports stamped with dates when entering and leaving the Schengen zone.
Border guards have also been ordered to ask Britons whether they have a return ticket, have enough money and have booked accommodation. It means it can take an extra 90 seconds to carry out passport checks. Mr Decoster told the BBC: ‘I felt very sorry for the British families that were really stuck in such a miserable situation.
‘And, meanwhile, I did an extraordinary journey yesterday. I went from my town in the Hauts-de-France to Amsterdam with my family and I crossed two borders and it took me not even a second to cross either of these borders. I had heard that Brexit would have no cost, but apparently it has cost, because we have to change the situation, we have to change and do new passport controls.
‘We still have a few non-EU members that are members of the Schengen area, why don’t we explore such an idea?’
But Mr Hunt said the French were furious with Brexit and Boris Johnson and the two countries needed to ‘reset’ their relations under the next PM.
The AA yesterday warned disabled drivers that their blue parking badges could be rejected in some European holiday hotspots. They were recognised until Brexit but no new agreement has been put in place.