Delays at Dover (1 Viewer)

Abacist

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I am sorry but if the French have not provided enough personnel then the British authorities ought to be letting all European passport holders through and send a message to Calais to say you'll have to check them as they leave the ships if you want to until you get the manning right in Dover. The french present could then check the non-european passports!

At times, whilst I love France, and a lot of french people there are some french people only seem capable of pulling their finger out when it comes to food, drink or striking!
 
Apr 9, 2014
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So after a delay on the A20 of about 13 hours, we have just passed through the French and British passport control. Just waved through nobody wanted to check the passports.

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spitfire

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In my limited security experience, I would have thought that France is not a good destination for UK-based terrorists; France is on high alert and there are already many people in the country or could easily enter the country that could undertake attacks. It would be harder for terrorists to enter the UK so if they are already here, it would make more sense for them to stay.

You don't think then the ferries could be a target ? Guess not ! Especially just at the beginning of the holidays ?
 
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Oct 30, 2010
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So after a delay on the A20 of about 13 hours, we have just passed through the French and British passport control. Just waved through nobody wanted to check the passports.
Absolutely crazy. What on earth is going on?

Richard.

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MattR

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You don't think then the ferries could be a target ? Guess not ! Especially just at the beginning of the holidays ?

If they thought that ferries were a target, the French would have more security, not less or is that naive?
 

MattR

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I am sorry but if the French have not provided enough personnel then the British authorities ought to be letting all European passport holders through and send a message to Calais to say you'll have to check them as they leave the ships if you want to until you get the manning right in Dover. The french present could then check the non-european passports!

At times, whilst I love France, and a lot of french people there are some french people only seem capable of pulling their finger out when it comes to food, drink or striking!

Wouldn't that be against the immigration policy that we have where we check passports on the French side and they check on the UK side. If we let everyone through to send a message, their message in return would be to do the same and we would have thousands of migrants arriving on UK soil every day until the system is reversed to normal; the consequences would be severe.
 

Abacist

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Ferries, IMHO, would not be an obvious choice as passengers potentially get checked at both boarding and disembarking and there is a record of all passengers and possibly passport information, I can't remember, but this is a serious risk to getting caught after the event unless its a suicide bomb and with steel compartmentalisation the blast would have the potential to kill fewer than in a night club or stadium.

In mainstream Europe there is relatively very little risk in comparison.

Tin hat on, retiring to my bunker!:)

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Abacist

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Wouldn't that be against the immigration policy that we have where we check passports on the French side and they check on the UK side. If we let everyone through to send a message, their message in return would be to do the same and we would have thousands of migrants arriving on UK soil every day until the system is reversed to normal; the consequences would be severe.

I wasn't suggesting a free for all but a pragmatic solution to avoid our side of the channel getting clogged up due to the french. If we fail in terms of immigration staff then we deserve the same treatment. It is quite unacceptable to have a paltry staff turnout on the day the kids break up from school over here! I was only suggesting European passport holders get through easily and anyone else would be checked.
 
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MattR

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I wasn't suggesting a free for all but a pragmatic solution to avoid our side of the channel getting clogged up due to the french. If we fail in terms of immigration staff then we deserve the same treatment. It is quite unacceptable to have a paltry staff turnout on the day the kids break up from school over here! I was only suggesting European passport holders get through easily and anyone else would be checked.

Regrettably, I think that they need to check everyone - many of the atrocities have been undertaken by European passport holders. Also, if we push everyone through as quickly as possible, the jam will just be worse somewhere else. It does seem strange that the British authorities did not warn those approaching Dover about the delays.
 
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May 7, 2011
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We are booked on the tunnel for tomorrow (Sunday) evening so
Fingers crossed it's clearer by then!

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I have always thought ferrys would be an easy target for bombing, all someone has got to do is talk to some drivers of parked up lorrys , find out what ferry they are on , put a time bomb under neath when the driver is asleep, bobs your uncle, blown up ferry , a lot easier than a plane, and you don't have to be on it.:(
 
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I have always thought ferrys would be an easy target for bombing, all someone has got to do is talk to some drivers of parked up lorrys , find out what ferry they are on , put a time bomb under neath when the driver is asleep, bobs your uncle, blown up ferry , a lot easier than a plane, and you don't have to be on it.:(
Same goes for the tunnel.
 
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sedge

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That's why you have to drive over humps and through various heat seeking cameras etc on the way out of Dover docks. In a private vehicle should you be pulled into the customs shed they've had dogs for years,Pete has been pulled on the way back from carp fishing holidays and sort of 'warned' the guys thinking doggy would go berserk at the tailgate as there was bound to be smells of fish not to mention Marmite in the boilies! Nope said the guy - they know EXACTLY what they are trained to smell for - and it AIN't that! And - they were told to shut all the car windows.

As it happened I rang DFDS at lunchtime-ish. I just asked after we'd dealt with my query, what the current delay was, for interest - she said 180 mins on the A20 - and I didn't note what she said on the A2 as she said that first and I hadn't expected them to be quoted in minutes LOL

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Derbyshire wanderer

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I can just remember when a 4hr passport control check was the norm.
It was before we were swamped with drugs and illegal firearms and the like but it was decided that the open border policy was more important so these checks were scaled back in a big way.
Talk about the idiots running the asylum!
These present delays would be justified and worthwhile if they were doing it like they used to but delays due to being short staffed is actually short sighted due to the checks will not actually make any difference as the problems are already on the European mainland.
 
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Quick update from the roving reporter. After the border control waving us through all the DFDS travellers had a nice long wait to checkin, P&O looked almost empty in comparison. We actually managed to checkin at 15:40, we were offered 16:00 to Dunkirk or 16:50 to Calais our original destination. We took Dunkirk as just wanted to get moving quickly, to be honest quite impressed with DFDS everything worked and apart from the wait for the checkin all was quick and easy.

It has scuppered our plans for the next 2 days, but that is the fun of things plans change you discover new places.

I would not wish that sort of delay on many people but really what can you do. I just feel the uk authorities could have communicated with us better rather than encouraging people to use the M2/A2 and A20 routes even after they were full, I thought that was what the electronic road signs were for.

French authorities, again as with the EU, the UK gov needs to get a backbone and stop whining. I do not think the french are malicious just incompetent.
Fini
 

MattR

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Quick update from the roving reporter. After the border control waving us through all the DFDS travellers had a nice long wait to checkin, P&O looked almost empty in comparison. We actually managed to checkin at 15:40, we were offered 16:00 to Dunkirk or 16:50 to Calais our original destination. We took Dunkirk as just wanted to get moving quickly, to be honest quite impressed with DFDS everything worked and apart from the wait for the checkin all was quick and easy.

It has scuppered our plans for the next 2 days, but that is the fun of things plans change you discover new places.

I would not wish that sort of delay on many people but really what can you do. I just feel the uk authorities could have communicated with us better rather than encouraging people to use the M2/A2 and A20 routes even after they were full, I thought that was what the electronic road signs were for.

French authorities, again as with the EU, the UK gov needs to get a backbone and stop whining.
I do not think the french are malicious just incompetent.
Fini

Security wise, I would prefer them to be malicious than incompetent.

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