London, Thanasis Gavos

Controversy over whether Brexit is to some extent responsible for the great inconvenience experienced every festive season by drivers and travelers at the port of Doverbroke out between those in charge at the port and the Minister of the Interior.

Dover is the main exit port from Britain to France and continental Europe. Last weekend, the wait for vehicles to board ships crossing the English Channel was up to 17 hours.

Interior Minister Suella Braverman attributed the delays to the fact that it was the weekend before Catholic and Protestant Easter, meaning increased excursion flows.

He rejected the claim that the delays in each festive season are so long because of Brexit, commenting that such a thing is “not fair” to support. He recommended “patience”.

But Dover Port Authority chief executive Doug Bannister said “in a post-Brexit environment, the time (taken) for border arrangements is longer”.

The main problem, say port officials, is that the passports of every British traveler must now be checked by French border guards and stamped. This is extremely time-consuming in the case of coach passengers.

Many of the coaches this weekend were carrying students on educational trips to France to mark Holy Week in Britain.

Port officials add that the weekend was a “perfect storm” as, in addition to additional checks on travel documents, the Easter cruise surge was for the first time at pre-pandemic levels, when there weren’t as many checks . In addition, ship routes were delayed due to bad weather conditions in the English Channel.

Countering his Tory colleague’s position, MP and former minister Robert Buckland admitted that Brexit had necessitated increased controls, which “undoubtedly” contributed to the suffering of travellers.

Labour’s shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the government had not tried to normalize the situation by failing to have better co-operation and better joint planning with the French authorities.

By Sunday night, the situation in Dover was back to normal, with officials at the port apologizing and thanking travelers for their patience.

Additional post-Brexit border controls came into effect on January 1, 2021, when international travel was reduced due to the pandemic.

The situation is expected to worsen, say officials in Dover, from next November, when the European Union’s new Entry and Exit System (EES) comes into force. The system requires one photograph and four fingerprints from each third-country traveler on their first visit to an EU country.