Lines of cars are expected to snake out of the Port of Dover and on to Kent’s arterial roads later this month unless the U.K. and France agree an emergency reprieve from the European Union’s new Entry/Exit System (EES), Doug Bannister, chief executive of Dover Harbour Board, told MPs on 7 July. The £40-million post-Brexit facility built to handle EES registrations is still not being used as planned because of a technical stand-off with the French border police, meaning first-time fingerprint and facial-scan enrolments happen in the cramped Eastern Docks.
![Port of Dover warns of ‘border chaos’ as EU biometric checks bite]()
For travelers now facing a more complex set of border formalities, services such as VisaHQ can help streamline the paperwork. Through its U.K. portal, the company provides up-to-date guidance on Schengen entry rules, biometric requirements and any fast-changing conditions around the EES, assisting both holidaymakers and corporate mobility planners in avoiding last-minute holdups.
During the May half-term holiday a four-and-a-half-hour backlog developed after only a few hours of EES processing; summer peaks routinely see 12,000 tourist vehicles a day. Freight traffic—much of it time-sensitive ‘just-in-time’ supply for U.K. factories, supermarkets and hospitals—would be trapped behind family cars if holiday queues again fill the A20 and M20 contraflow. Bannister has written to the Department for Transport, the Home Office and the EU urging a full suspension of EES at Dover for the summer or, at minimum, a protocol that allows French officers to stand the system down pre-emptively when forecasts point to critical congestion. Liam Byrne MP, chair of the Business and Trade Committee, warned ministers that “once queues stretch for miles through Kent, it will be too late” and called for swift talks in Paris. For businesses, the stakes are high: delays at Dover risk missed delivery slots, spoilage of perishable goods and costly driver-hour overruns. Corporate travel managers are being advised to avoid Friday afternoon ferries, build extra lay-over time into itineraries and brief road-freight providers on alternative routes via Harwich or the Channel Tunnel—though capacity there is limited.
For travelers now facing a more complex set of border formalities, services such as VisaHQ can help streamline the paperwork. Through its U.K. portal, the company provides up-to-date guidance on Schengen entry rules, biometric requirements and any fast-changing conditions around the EES, assisting both holidaymakers and corporate mobility planners in avoiding last-minute holdups.
During the May half-term holiday a four-and-a-half-hour backlog developed after only a few hours of EES processing; summer peaks routinely see 12,000 tourist vehicles a day. Freight traffic—much of it time-sensitive ‘just-in-time’ supply for U.K. factories, supermarkets and hospitals—would be trapped behind family cars if holiday queues again fill the A20 and M20 contraflow. Bannister has written to the Department for Transport, the Home Office and the EU urging a full suspension of EES at Dover for the summer or, at minimum, a protocol that allows French officers to stand the system down pre-emptively when forecasts point to critical congestion. Liam Byrne MP, chair of the Business and Trade Committee, warned ministers that “once queues stretch for miles through Kent, it will be too late” and called for swift talks in Paris. For businesses, the stakes are high: delays at Dover risk missed delivery slots, spoilage of perishable goods and costly driver-hour overruns. Corporate travel managers are being advised to avoid Friday afternoon ferries, build extra lay-over time into itineraries and brief road-freight providers on alternative routes via Harwich or the Channel Tunnel—though capacity there is limited.
