Dover Faces Six-Hour EES Queues as French Authorities Refuse Suspension

The EU Entry/Exit System (EES) – a biometric registration process that replaces manual passport stamping – is operating at the Port of Dover despite mounting traffic congestion. French border officials have ruled that congestion will not trigger a suspension of biometric checks, even though modelling by the port predicts queues of up to six hours in a typical summer weekend and up to 12 hours in a worst-case scenario. Around 10,000 cars are expected to travel to France on Saturday and 10,500 outbound vehicles on both days of the upcoming weekend, prompting Kent officials to prepare emergency holding sites along the M20.

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The UK government has allocated £10.5 million for infrastructure upgrades at Dover, Eurotunnel and Eurostar, plus an additional £20 million to expand passport-checking and vehicle-holding capacity. A spokesperson for the French interior ministry said 350 extra staff have been dedicated to the EES rollout, and a pre-registration app and more automated border gates are being planned. Kent County Council leader Linden Kemkaran asserted that “the plans are in place, the key traffic-management measures are ready, and officers are actively monitoring the situation alongside national and local partners.”

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MP Sir Roger Gale warned that holidaymakers are being used as “guinea pigs” and described the situation as “potentially a nightmare.” Conservative MP John Cooper warned of a “disastrous” impact on lorry loads of seafood, saying cargo value could “disappear practically overnight.” Liberal Democrat councillor Antony Hook called the lack of a registration suspension “deeply worrying,” while Home Affairs Select Committee chair Karen Bradley cautioned that without French action there would be “utter chaos.”

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• Projected weekend traffic: ~10,000 cars to France, ~10,500 outbound vehicles.

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• Queue forecasts: up to 12 hours in worst case; recent analysis suggests around six hours with new French kiosks.

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• Infrastructure investment: £40 million spent reclaiming land for 84 EES biometric kiosks (still inactive), £10.5 million + £20 million from the UK government for port and tunnel upgrades.

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• Additional French staffing: 350 personnel assigned to EES rollout.

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• “It’s potentially a nightmare,” — Sir Roger Gale, MP for Herne Bay and Sandwich

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• “really disappointing” — Doug Bannister, CEO of the Port of Dover

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• “We’re talking about passengers, obviously, but there’s all the freight implications as well.” — Doug Bannister, CEO of the Port of Dover

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• “If you’ve got a queue of 12 hours of cars and coaches, in the kind of heat we have been having, with probably not enough water, few, if any, lavatory facilities in the queue, and you’ve got elderly people and children and animals that gets very serious indeed.” — Sir Roger Gale, MP for Herne Bay and Sandwich

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