howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
#1
Guest 715- Registered: 9 Jun 2011
- Posts: 2,438
#2
Checks to be carried out by Ferry Company staff and Port Security it seems , surely the huge Border Force should be checking passports?
Audere est facere.
Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
#3
what border force martin,they have been cut back by hm government.
Guest 715- Registered: 9 Jun 2011
- Posts: 2,438
#4
They still have huge numbers Brian, and surely it is their job?
Audere est facere.
Brian Dixon- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
#5
your right martin it is there job to check passports,but there numbers have been cut by a lot.
Guest 697- Registered: 13 Apr 2010
- Posts: 622
#6
Presumably this will be a similar system to that already in place when flying. You are required to provide passport details in advance (usually online) and then passports are checked again as part of the check in process. Hopefully, similar systems will, or hopefully have been developed by the ferry operators.
Guest 977- Registered: 27 Jun 2013
- Posts: 1,031
#7
Same happens with cruises leaving Dover, passport checks done by the cruise company on booking and check-in, and security by a private firm.
Guest 697- Registered: 13 Apr 2010
- Posts: 622
#8
Eurotunnel have indeed opted for the online option for Advanced Passenger Information (API) as used by airlines. Doesn't appear that any of the ferry companies have gone down this avenue .... yet!
Guest 715- Registered: 9 Jun 2011
- Posts: 2,438
#9
It seems to me that the ordinary law abiding members of the travelling public will be inconvenienced and the concealed criminal element will continue to travel undetected.
Audere est facere.
Guest 1394- Registered: 5 Nov 2014
- Posts: 9
#10
The tunnel have to do it this way as they don't employ staff to visually check. The 3 port operators will now have to do visual checks after the Easter period.
All because the government have no idea how many people are in the country at any given time. They know what comes in but not what goes out!
Guest 687- Registered: 2 Jun 2009
- Posts: 513
#11
I cannot see what the problem is as all passports are currently checked by ferry staff before issuing a ticket to board. The port as already removed the necessity to weigh freight vehicles prior to loading, once they remove the weigh bridges this will remove a'bottleneck' within the port.
Guest 698- Registered: 28 May 2010
- Posts: 8,664
#12
Leaving Dover by car, the only passport check is usually a wave-through by the French officials. Very seldom do they actually look at the passports, the cover waved at them will do.
I'm an optimist. But I'm an optimist who takes my raincoat - Harold Wilson
Guest 653- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,540
#13
According to the Telegraph:
A new policy on passport checks at the main cross-Channel terminals to crack down on illegal immigration could cause holidaymakers chaos - including five-mile queues.
From 8 April, every tourist leaving the UK will have their passports checked at ferry points for the first time in 20 years.
According to the Daily Telegraph, families looking to catch holiday ferries to France could be left to "fry in their cars" on the A20 at the end of the M20 motorway as staff struggle to process cars at passport control.
One source told the paper: "There is all manner of health and safety risks imaginable from toddlers needing to go the toilet through to families frying in cars on a summer's day."
The paper adds that the checks could double the amount of time it takes to pass a car through with a family of four inside, sparking concerns that queues will build up out of ferry ports, particularly at Dover, which handles 60 per cent of Britain's ferry traffic.
Roger
Brian Dixon- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
#14
hopefully the new holding system will be up and running by then.