{"id":680221,"date":"2026-07-08T10:55:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T10:55:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/680221\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T10:55:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T10:55:12","slug":"port-of-dover-faces-utter-chaos-under-struggling-eu-entry-system-mps-warn-travel-leisure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/680221\/","title":{"rendered":"Port of Dover faces \u2018utter chaos\u2019 under struggling EU entry system, MPs warn | Travel & leisure"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cross-Channel ferry passengers and the port of Dover face \u201cutter chaos and miles of tailbacks\u201d under the EU\u2019s entry\/exit system<\/a> (EES) unless the technology is fixed or checks suspended by next week, MPs have warned.<\/p>\n

The home affairs select committee chair, Karen Bradley, urged the government to \u201capply maximum pressure\u201d on the French authorities to act on the EES before peak holiday traffic arrives at the port.<\/p>\n

Dover normally experiences its busiest weekend by the time most schools have officially broken up for summer, so it expects traffic to peak from Friday 17 July.<\/p>\n

The port said EES checks at the start of the May half-term holiday led to four and a half hours of delays<\/a>, and it expects almost 50% more vehicles to travel through Dover this summer.<\/p>\n

The warning came after the EU on Tuesday rejected calls<\/a> by airports and airlines around Europe to suspend EES\u2019s fingerprinting and facial recognition border controls, despite admitting to \u201c20 difficult spots\u201d where the system was causing tailbacks.<\/p>\n

EU officials said only 20 of 1,500 border crossing points were \u201cdifficult spots\u201d.<\/p>\n

The committee of MPs visited Dover last week to see where the port had changed its layout using land reclaimed from the sea and installed 84 automatic kiosks for EES \u2013 designed to speed through traffic but which cannot now be used because of problems with the technology supplied by France<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Bradley said: \u201cWe saw for ourselves that there is going to be utter chaos next week unless the French authorities step up. And the people who will suffer are British holidaymakers and firms attempting to transport goods.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe western docks currently serve as a processing centre for coach passengers undergoing the EU\u2019s entry\/exit system. But the \u00a340m biometric kiosk facility meant for car travellers remains closed due to technology and software delays from French authorities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Home Office must apply maximum pressure right now to either get this up and running or suspend the checks, otherwise there will be miles of tailbacks.\u201d<\/p>\n

The port\u2019s chief executive, Doug Bannister, last week wrote to the business and trade committee to warn of the impact on local towns as well as transport, freight and trade if EES problems were not resolved. He said Dover could not use its facility because of \u201cthe inoperability of the EES kiosk technology, which is completely beyond the control of the port\u201d.<\/p>\n

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He warned: \u201cWithout greater flexibility in how EES is operated during periods of exceptional demand, we will face repeated episodes of severe congestion throughout the summer holiday period.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bannister said traffic modelling showed \u201cqueueing cars spilling out of the port on to the public highway for miles. This simply cannot be allowed to happen, as both Dover and Folkestone will be severely affected.\u201d<\/p>\n

EES was launched last October<\/a> after years of delays, with the ability for border police to temporarily suspend the system if deemed necessary to process all travellers \u2013 a discretionary power that will only last until September.<\/p>\n

The International Air Transport Association has called for action on the checks, highlighting \u201cdelays and missed connections\u201d in Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece and Belgium, while Ryanair has warned of \u201cqueue chaos\u201d<\/a> in major holiday airports including M\u00e1laga, Alicante and Palma.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cross-Channel ferry passengers and the port of Dover face \u201cutter chaos and miles of tailbacks\u201d under the EU\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":680222,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-680221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=680221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/680222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=680221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=680221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=680221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}