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Q&A: Eurostar and airports in France hit by ongoing protest by French customs officers

Eurostar passengers in Paris continued to be hit by major disruption on Monday due to industrial action being carried out by French customs officers while charter flights to ski resorts have also been subject to disruption. Here's what you need to know about the ongoing protests.

Published: 11 March 2019 15:02 CET

Q&A: Eurostar and airports in France hit by ongoing protest by French customs officers

Scenes at Gare du Nord on Sunday

The long delays at Paris Gare du Nord and on the motorways around Calais over the past week have caused no shortage of frustration among passengers and on Saturday the industrial action started affecting people taking flights to French ski resorts.

Here's what you need to know about the situation that continued to blight travel plans on Monday.

Why exactly are French customs officials striking?

The reason behind the industrial action, which began on March 4th, is customs officials are trying to press demands for higher pay and demonstrate what will happen if greater controls are put in place once Britain leaves the European Union, planned for later this month.

Instead of going on strike — meaning they would not work at all — the customs officers have been carrying out work-to-rule industrial action which means that they only do what is required by the rules of their contract.

This means that they precisely follow all safety or other regulations, which has means lots of checks and questions which has slowed down the flow of passengers through terminals at Eurostar, EUrotunnel and the ports in Calais and now at airports in the Alps.

Photo: AFP

Vincent Thomazo from UNSA union told The Local last week that customs' agents wanted to get the message across to the French government that they were simply not ready for Brexit.

“Our aim is to attract attention to our worsening conditions of work which will only get worse once Brexit happens,” Thomazo said.

“We are simply not ready. The administration has simply waited too long to get things in place,” he said.

The French government has announced the recruitment of an extra 700 customs officials, a number seen as insufficient by some unions.

Who is being affected?

The first to be affected were truck drivers travelling through Calais. Long checks caused tailbacks of trucks along the A16 motorway.

At the moment Eurostar passengers and people going on skiing holidays, with flights to Chambéry, Grenoble in the French Alps, and Lyon affected by the industrial action.

Eurostar passengers have taken to social media to voice their anger at the situation, with some kept in queues for over an hour to check-in while trains have been experiencing heavy delays, in some cases for up to several hours.

On Monday morning the manager of Eurostar at Gare du Nord tweeted that the service was experiencing delays of up to one hour however the company said that it was expecting delays of up to 120 minutes throughout the day.

Hi Edward,
We are expecting around 120 minute delays throughout the day, but you can keep an eye on our live departure page at https://t.co/4RBorlJkG4

— Eurostar (@Eurostar) March 11, 2019

The unions have been carrying out action this weekend at airports in Lyon, Chambery and Grenoble.

One person on Twitter put up a post with a photo of the chaos at Grenoble airport (see below): “Grenoble airport – today French customs are practicing passport control for a no deal Brexit. This is the future Brexiteers!”

Grenoble airport – today French customs are practicing passport control for a no deal Brexit. This is the future Brexiters! ? #Brexit #Grenoble #thefuture pic.twitter.com/ABAYatq3bl

— Tanya Handkammer Gilbert (@thisisladyt) March 9, 2019

How long has it been going on?

The industrial action began on March 4th.

The action has been going for a week at the Eurostar terminal at Gare du Nord and began affecting flights to the French Alps this weekend.

Passengers using the EuroTunnel have also been affected off and on over the past week. On Sunday people took to Twitter to voice their frustration at the situation however on Monday passenger services were operating as normal.

(Trucks queued up outside port of Calais. AFP)

How long is it expected to continue?

The simple — and for some, irritating answer — is that nobody really knows.

Eurostar services will be hit at Paris Gare du Nord until March 12th at least however the company tweeted to one passenger on Monday morning “we are not aware of when the French douane (customs) action will cease.”

Hi. We are not aware of when the french douane action will cease. At present we are advising passengers for today and tomorrow not to travel unless is necessary. However we may still have issues on Wednesday so we would suggest keep to Tuesday so we can get you to funeral.

— Eurostar (@Eurostar) March 11, 2019

French Budget Minister Gerald Darmanin is set to meet the customs unions on Tuesday morning.

Nevertheless, Vincent Thomazo from the UNSA union told The Local on Monday: “This could go on for a very long time.

“I do not think the government is ready to make the concessions we are looking for and border controls are not currently its main priority.”

What should you do if you have Eurostar tickets for the next few days?

Eurostar is advising people with tickets to only travel “if necessary” and is offering ticket exchanges for those affected free of charge.

However as seen above there is no detailed information on when the strike is expected to end.

Member comments

Anonymous - 26 March 2019 at 12:02 CET

The delay for passengers at Gare du Nord has been closer to 5 hours. I stood in a line for 5 hours on March 13.

Become a Member to leave a comment.

INTERVIEW: 'A lot of people think Brexit is done, but it's not for Brits in Europe'

In the early days of 2021, after the United Kingdom had left the EU and completed the final stage of Brexit, many British citizens returned to their home countries in Europe only to face a grilling at the border.

Though the Withdrawal Agreement (WA) technically guaranteed their right to live and work in the countries they’d settled in before Brexit, there was widespread confusion about these fundamental rights and many were treated like new arrivals.

Over time, the chaos at the airports subsided as border officials and airlines were given clearer guidance on the treatment of Brits. But three years later, a number of Brits who live on the continent still face problems when it comes to proving their post-Brexit rights.

This was the reason campaign group British in Europe decided to set up their new EU-funded ICE project. Starting this year in March, it aims to build valuable connections between UK citizens abroad and mentor the next generation of civil rights advocates around the continent. The acronym stands for ‘Inform, Empower, Connect’ and the project’s organisers describe it as “the first project of its kind”.

“It’s a completely innovative project – especially the fact that it’s across so many countries,” Jane Golding, chair of British in Europe and one of the project’s founders, told The Local.

Bringing together groups from 11 EU member states, the project aims to train up volunteers to understand both the Withdrawal Agreement and EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, as well as learning skills like advocacy and communication, using real-life civil rights cases that are referred to British in Europe.

“The ultimate goal is to amplify the messages across the wider group,” said Golding. “You start with the volunteers, they go back to their groups, then the people that we train, they go back and train people. Then they pass on that knowledge to the wider groups, on their Facebook accounts and through social media, and hopefully it all snowballs, not just in their countries but across the EU.”

‘Far-reaching repercussions’

So many years after Brexit, it’s hard to believe that there’s still a need for a project like ICE that empowers Brits to protect their rights. Indeed, the future of groups like British in Europe and regional groups like British in Germany and Spain-based group EuroCitizens felt uncertain just a year or two ago.

But Golding says there are still serious issues cropping up for Brits in several countries around Europe – they just have a different quality to the problems that arose at the start.

“In some ways it’s needed even more because as we predicted right at the beginning, at the first stage of implementation, you’ve got the more routine cases,” she explained.

“What we’re seeing now is not as many cases, but when the cases come up, they’re complex. They can have such far-reaching repercussions on people’s lives. And of course, memories start to fade. A lot of people think Brexit is already done, but it’s not.”

Volunteers in British in Europe ICE project

The volunteers of the British in Europe ICE project pose for a photo at the kick-off meeting in Brussels on May 21st, 2024. Photo courtesy of British In Europe

Though the rights set out in the Withdrawal Agreement apply across the continent, different countries have taken different approaches to implementing them.

That means that while in Germany, for example, UK citizens simply had to declare that they lived in the country, people in neighbouring Denmark had to apply for their rights.

This led to a notorious situation in Denmark in which as many as 2,000 Brits were threatened with deportation after not applying in time or completing the right application process. According to Golding, this had a lot to do with the fact that people who arrived in 2020 weren’t given the same information as other UK migrants who arrived before.

In Sweden, meanwhile, the situation is still difficult for many Brits who lived there prior to Brexit.

“There have been issues with an anomalously high numbers of refusals compared to other countries, and they seem to be taking a very strict approach on late applications,” Golding explained.

Portugal has been another difficult case. Although the country opted for a declaratory system where Brits could simply exchange old residence documents for a new ID card after Brexit, reports suggest that the authorities have taken years to issue these cards, leaving many of the some 34,000 Brits in the country in limbo.

“While people are still waiting to have their status confirmed and have their card in their hand, it’s difficult to access a whole range of services, like health services, or applying for jobs or dealing with the authorities, or even going to the bank,” Golding said. “All of these problems just affect people’s lives.”

A French border guard checks a passport at the border

A French border guard checks a passport at the border. Photo by DENIS CHARLET / AFP

There are also concerns about the EU’s new exit and entry system (EES), due to come into force in October, which is based on biometric documentation.

“We still do not have clear data on how many people in declaratory countries like Germany, where it wasn’t compulsory to apply for the card, don’t actually have a card,” Golding said. “How is that going to play out if it’s a document-based digitalised system?”

A lack of support

In the immediate aftermath of Brexit, funding from the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) was still available to support NGOs in Europe helping Brits with their migration and civil rights issues. But that temporary funding soon expired, leaving groups like British in Europe largely on their own.

“The whole point is people’s lives change at very different paces,” Golding said. “And now this project is really going to start to pick up some of those cases and report on those issues, which is really crucial and exciting for the precedent that it sets, and it’s very clearly necessary still, because people don’t just sort their lives in the 18 months that the FCDO chose to supply that funding.”

This feeling of being left alone and increasingly isolated from the UK is one that many Brits in Europe have felt in the aftermath of Brexit. But the upcoming UK election on July 4th could be a game-changer.

This time, following a change in the law, Brits who have lived abroad for more than 15 years will be able to vote for the first time.

Polling station in the UK

A polling station in the UK. Photo by Elliott Stallion on Unsplash

When it comes to the election, the message from British in Europe is clear: “Make your voice count now, make your vote count, make sure you use it,” Golding said.

With the June 18th registration deadline fast approaching, BiE is advising UK citizens abroad to apply for a proxy vote as soon as possible, rather than relying on a postal vote from abroad. Since the 15-year rule was abolished on January 16th, more than 100,000 British citizens have registered to vote, according to official statistics. It is unclear how many were registered before the change in the law.

With an estimated 4.7 million Brits currently living abroad – 1.3 million of whom are in the EU – this could have a significant impact on the electoral landscape, Golding says. But most significantly, the change is creating a feeling of connection and belonging that wasn’t there before.

Nurturing this sense of belonging is one of the main goals of ICE.

With these bridges being built, British in Europe hopes to create a network of support that spans across borders.

“Now we’ve met. We’re going to meet,” said Golding. “We know we’re going to meet again in Berlin in October and then we’ll meet again in the new year in 2025 as well. It means a huge amount because even British in Europe, our steering team, we’ve only met physically three times.”

This opens up the possibility of people sharing their knowledge from country to country, Golding explained.

“There is crossover and the reassurance of having that EU wide view and knowing that you’re not alone and knowing that in this country, we managed to get this solution,” she said. “And then you can go back and say to the authorities in your country, well, in that country they did that – all of that helps. It’s really good.”

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