France and UK to increase staffing at border controls in effort to stave off travel chaos

MPs have warned of ‘utter chaos and miles of tailbacks’ unless EU’s entry/exit system is updated. Photograph: Paul Quayle/Alamy View image in fullscreen MPs have warned of ‘utter chaos and miles of tailbacks’ unless EU’s entry/exit system is updated. Photograph: Paul Quayle/Alamy France and UK to increase staffing at border controls in effort to stave off travel chaos Disruption at Channel crossings expected to rise amid new fingerprinting and facial recognition checks France and the UK have agreed to increase staffing at border controls in response to warnings of travel chaos caused by new fingerprinting and facial recognition checks. Disruption at Channel crossings is expected to rise sharply next weekend at the start of the summer holiday season, with MPs warning of “utter chaos and miles of tailbacks” unless the EU’s entry/exit system (EES) is fixed or checks are suspended. The EU has rejected calls to suspend the system, but French officials have reportedly assured the transport secretary, Heidi Alexander, that more staff will be deployed to ease queues. On Sunday, Alexander announced £20m of UK government funding to help reduce delays. The Department for Transport said the money would increase capacity for processing vehicles, reduce wait times and ease congestion. Alexander said her French counterpart, Philippe Tabarot, had agreed that high levels of resourcing at border points were essential to enable smoother journeys for passengers over the summer period. French border police have offered to put more of its officers on British soil to ensure passport booths at Dover, Folkestone and St Pancras station in London, from where the Eurostar departs, were better staffed, according to the Sunday Times . But the exact level of any staffing commitment from France is unclear. A spokesperson for the DfT said: “Heidi Alexander and her French counterpart agreed that high levels of resourcing at border points are essential to enable smoother journeys for passengers over the summer period.” Alexander told Tabarot that biometric kiosks used to take fingerprints and facial scans were not working. The DfT pointed out that checks could be carried out on coach passengers and lorries, by French border police on UK soil. But instead they are currently having to manually register car passengers without biometrics while the French authorities wait for new kiosks and tablets to be ready. Two-thirds of EU citizens back UK rejoining bloc, survey finds Read more Alexander said: “As well as the over £20m we have given to increase booths for passport checks and minimise disruption, I have raised holidaymakers’ concerns directly with the EU commissioner for transport to make sure they are playing their part to reduce delays during the busiest travel period of the year. “I will do everything in my power to help holidaymakers on their way.” The port of Dover said EES checks at the start of the May half-term holiday led to four-and-a-half hours of delays, and it expects