France and UK Agree to Increase Border Staffing for EU Fingerprint Checks

France and the UK have agreed to increase staffing at border controls in response to warnings of travel chaos from new fingerprinting and facial recognition checks under the EU entry-exit system, The Guardian reported. Disruption at Channel crossings is expected to rise sharply next weekend at the start of the summer holiday season.

The port of Dover expects almost 50% more vehicles this summer than usual levels and about 12,000 cars a day next weekend, more than three times normal volume.

UK transport secretary Heidi Alexander announced £20m of UK government funding on Sunday to increase capacity for processing vehicles, reduce wait times and ease congestion. She said her French counterpart Philippe Tabarot agreed that high levels of resourcing at border points were essential for smoother journeys over the summer period.

French border police have offered to put more officers on UK soil to staff passport booths at Dover, Folkestone and London St Pancras station.

The exact level of any staffing commitment from France remains unclear. Alexander told Tabarot that biometric kiosks used to take fingerprints and facial scans were not working. The Department for Transport noted that checks could be carried out on coach passengers and lorries by French border police on UK soil, but car passengers are instead being registered manually while new kiosks and tablets are awaited.

MPs have warned there would be utter chaos and miles of tailbacks unless the system is fixed or checks suspended. The EU has rejected calls to suspend the entry-exit system but said on Tuesday there were 20 difficult spots caused by the new checks. 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.