Chaos at UK’s Dover port as travellers wait in queue for over 6 hours

UK’s Port of Dover, the country’s main gateway to Europe, was declared “critical” on Saturday after “woefully inadequate” French border control staffing triggered more than six-hour-long queue for travellers as they tried to escape for the summer holidays.

Passengers heading towards Dover port have been asked to stock up with “water, food and supplies” and expect continued long congestion in the coming days in view of “inadequate French border capacity”.

According to reports, less than half of the port’s nine passport booths were staffed early on Friday morning, leading to chaos and long queues for the rest of the day.

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According to the Financial Times newspaper, Dover officials were “deeply frustrated” at the level of resources provided by the French Police aux Frontières (PAF).

In a statement, Doug Bannister, CEO of Dover Port, expressed regret at the PAF for not providing adequate officers despite request.

Traffic flows had improved during the day as more French staff came on stream, he added, but “we do still have a heck of a backlog to get through.”

The UK passengers are bound to face enhanced border checks by the French officials in the aftermath of Brexit.

A local French police body told the Reuters news agency that the delay was due to an "unexpected technical incident" at the Channel Tunnel. It failed to describe what that “technical incident” was.

The French embassy in London later tweeted that all border checks were operating at full capacity.

Meanwhile, Liz Truss, Britain's foreign secretary who is campaigning to replace Boris Johnson, said the "awful situation" was unacceptable, and called on France to increase the capacity.

"We need action from France to build up capacity at the border to limit any further disruption for British tourists and to ensure this appalling situation is avoided in future," she said in a statement.

(With inputs from agencies)

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