Analysis: Everyone has stuck their head in the sand over queues at Dover
Suella Braverman won’t acknowledge Brexit, and border officials and ferry firms can’t blame it quick enough, writes Sascha O’Sullivan
If you’ve been to a European airport this year, chances are, at some point, you’ve been in the “arrivals from all other countries” passport queue.
It’s an inevitability of leaving the European Union that we are no longer privy to the freedom of movement which means we sail straight through the gates. Instead, if you have a British passport, it has to be glanced at by an official and stamped so you’ll be on your way.
Many smaller European airports especially were so used to the majority of travellers coming from within the trading bloc, they simply didn’t have the infrastructure or staff to deal with an influx of people from the UK needing their passports stamped.
This same requirement – a simple yes, hello, passport, scan, stamp – is what’s also behind the snarl up at the port of Dover, with as many as 20,000 people waiting up to 15 hours over the weekend as families tried to get away for an Easter break.
To the bemusement of pretty much everyone, Suella Braverman came out to declare this had nothing to do with Brexit.
She told Sky News it was not fair to call the delays an “adverse effect of Brexit.”
Later this year, a new Entry/Exit System (EES), will add an extra requirement for people from outside the European Union to have fingerprints scanned and photographs taken when first entering the bloc. On subsequent visits, they won’t need to be taken again, but will be verified.
The Conservative Party has struggled to point to so-called “Brexit dividends”, where we use our newfound freedom to enhance the UK. In doing so, the government seems to have become detached from the very-real Brexit handicaps. To anyone trying to get through passport control, it will be obvious leaving the European Union is why they’re stuck in a queue. It may be that to them, this was worth it. Indeed, that was the whole gamble.
But by simply pretending leaving the EU has had nothing to do with queues at the border risks making the Home Secretary look like she has no idea what’s going on in one of the key parts of her department.
There is a very justifiable point Braverman could have made about the obvious impact of Easter on families wanting to get across the Channel. It will come as little surprise to those working at the port that Easter happens every year, and every year families pack up their car with suitcases and head on holiday.
There will likely be additional queues over the coronation bank holiday and other long weekends.
Brexit has made it harder to travel to Europe, and Braverman does herself no favours by pretending this isn’t true. But those working at Dover everyday need to get used to the new status quo and prepare for even more entry rules.
As J.K. Rowling said before her run ins with the culture wars “there is an expiry date on blaming your parents,” the same will eventually be true of Brexit.