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LONDON, July 22 (Reuters) – A “critical incident” has caused a traffic slowdown at the port of Dover on England’s south coast, British authorities said, blaming a lack of French customs officers at the border.
Many ferries to Europe depart from Dover, and travelers wishing to travel to France must undergo checks with French customs.
Port of Dover chief executive Doug Bannister told UK broadcaster Sky News: ‘To be let down in such a way is very frustrating.
“We are doing everything we can, it is not a problem at the border as such, it is the French authorities. We can only continue to work with them”, explained for his part the British Minister of State for Europe, Graham Stuart.
The prefect of the North, Georges-François Leclerc, replied in a press release that the information relayed by the British media had to be “corrected”.
According to him, the increase in traffic on this holiday weekend had been anticipated and a suitable device had been prepared.
“An unforeseeable technical incident at the Channel Tunnel led the border police to postpone the desired full operational capacity by one hour,” he explained, adding that this delay had caused very heavy road traffic on the British side. .
(Report Muvija M, with the contribution of Farouq Suleiman and Juliette Jabkhiro, written by William James; French version Camille Raynaud, edited by Sophie Louet)