UK travellers to France face long delays for third day

LONDON (AFP): The long queue of traffic waiting to board ferries to France at the English port of Dover began easing on Sunday evening, after a hugely disrupted weekend left some travellers waiting up to 16 hours.

Channel ferry operators made extra sailings to France to help clear the backlog.

But UK interior minister Suella Braverman on Sunday rejected claims that the delays at the start of the Easter getaway were “an adverse effect of Brexit”, which ended free movement from Britain to European Union member states.

The Port of Dover said in a tweet that “all this weekend’s coach traffic is now contained in the port ready for processing through immigration controls”.

The popular port for cross-Channel ferry travel “continues to work with the ferry operators and border agencies to get the remaining coach passengers on their way as quickly as possible,” the statement said.

According to reports from passengers on social networks, many people still waited more than 10 hours on Sunday to be able to board a boat to France.

Dover has seen a larger-than-expected influx of passengers since Friday, while at the same time weather conditions have made it difficult to board ferries.

Dover Port said earlier that coaches had been waiting “several hours but tourist cars are getting through OK”, while freight traffic had not been unduly affected.

P&O Ferries apologised to customers on Sunday, saying some would face waits of four to five hours.

Braverman told Sky News that some delays were to be expected at peak holiday times.

“I think we have got a particular combination of factors that have occurred at this point in time.

“This will ease… but it is a busy time of year,” she said.

The delays angered some travellers, with families among those stuck for hours on end.

“My son has been sitting on a bus since 6.30 pm yesterday and they still haven’t got on,” Twitter user Chet posted on Sunday morning.

Rosie Pearson, who was heading to the French Alps with her husband and two teenagers, said they had faced a 16-hour wait.

“The whole thing was a shambles… Not a single bit of communication,” she told the PA news agency on Saturday. “The worst thing was that no one told us anything for the whole 16 hours, literally nothing.”

Last summer, the UK government blamed France for failing to adequately staff their border posts at the port of Dover after two days of long delays for all travellers, allegations that Paris denied.

French lawmakers said checks now took longer as Britain has “third country” status because it was no longer in the EU, and urged that facilities be improved at Dover.