French authorities temporarily suspended Dover EES checks to relieve peak weekend congestion

Extra EU border checks at Dover were temporarily suspended by French authorities on Saturday after thousands of holidaymakers heading to the port faced long queues in soaring temperatures.

The port said it had escalated the "challenging situation" with border authorities, and the change would help clear queues at the terminal and congestion on surrounding roads.

Travellers had faced up to two hours’ delay reaching the port and up to a further two and half hours to complete processing at the terminal on Saturday morning, the BBC reported.

Traffic was "slow moving" by lunchtime and the processing time at check-in was under an hour, the port said. 

Traffic was “free-flowing” by 4pm on what the port described as its peak day of the May half-term getaway weekend.  

French authorities said the additional checks had been reinstated by 5pm on Saturday. 

Under the European Union’s new digital Entry/Exit System (EES), biometric checks including fingerprinting and facial scanning are due be introduced for non-EU travellers.

The Port of Dover said: “Thank you to our customers and local community for your patience and perseverance today, and to all our partners, including PAF [French Border Police], for supporting our efforts to resolve the situation by invoking Article 9 of the EES regulations, which enabled us to get traffic flowing again as it should.”

Port of Dover chief executive Doug Bannister, told the BBC it had expected more than 8,000 cars to travel through the port on Saturday.

He added that 84 kiosks had been installed to accommodate the new digital system and "handle these peak volumes efficiently and safely".

But "despite having assurances from authorities, from our government, from the French around how this would work it really was slow processing this morning," said

Bannister. "I think we’re all quite frustrated".

The port had urged ferry passengers on Friday to be prepared for delays at the start of the May half-term travel peak .

It was the first holiday period since the EES border system was fully implemented.

Travellers have to go through French border checks before boarding a cross-Channel ferry at Dover