to start the Summer Vacation In England has caused serious traffic chaos in the port of Dover. The ferry port, which connects France and Britain, declared an emergency on Friday morning because traffic on the access roads had come to a standstill. “It’s very, very tough,” Kent County Council Leader Roger Gough told the BBC on Saturday morning.

Port director Doug Bannister noted that additional post-Brexit checks will increase check-in times. British tourists entering the European Union are now required to get their passports stamped because they are only allowed to stay in EU member states for 90 days at a time. “It’s something we insisted on when we left the EU,” British travel reporter Simon Calder told Sky News TV.

expected rush

But the port administration also made them French Authorities responsible for the chaos. Staffing at passport control, which is conducted on the British side, was “unfortunately insufficient” overnight and in the morning, according to a statement from the port. Despite months of preparation for the expected attack, the available resources were insufficient.

The French side, however, referred to an “unforeseeable technical incident”. Passengers must register
dovers
undergo border checks by French officials before boarding a ferry to northern France.

A “big load” was expected for Saturday, Bannister said. After the 8,500 cars cleared on Friday, 10,000 are expected on Saturday, he told the BBC. Cars and trucks waited in lines that stretched for miles. At 7 a.m. Saturday, the ferry company P&O Ferries said it would take three to four hours to reach the port and clear security. On Friday there were six and more.

Protests against fuel prices

French MP Pierre-Henri Dumont said the travel chaos was a late consequence of Brexit. British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss urged Paris on Friday to do something about “unacceptable” delays at the port of Dover.

In addition to the difficulties in the English Channel, protests were announced against high fuel prices on major transport routes in Great Britain. The protesters wanted to move in extremely slow columns of vehicles on roads such as the north-south axis of the M5 and the east-west axis of the M4 to disrupt the flow of traffic. The route is particularly important for tourists who are on vacation in their own country. The chaos in the streets is expected to intensify over the weekend.