https://arab.news/5dzxg
- Many Britons take the Channel Tunnel from England to France, using Eurotunnel's Shuttle service
- P&O Ferries issued a similar tweet warning that "only those with French residency will be permitted to enter France"
PARIS: France said Thursday that it will suspend a new rule that prevents Britons from transiting through the country to reach homes elsewhere in the EU, a move that caught thousands of travellers off guard.
"During the year-end holidays" border police will show "tolerance" for Britons returning to the European Union after trips, France's Interior Ministry said.
Many Britons take the Channel Tunnel from England to France, using Eurotunnel's Shuttle service, to drive from the UK to their homes in other EU countries.
For the holidays many returned to Britain to visit family and friends without knowing that France was planning the tougher rules on non-residents.
Under stricter COVID-19 travel rules being applied since December 28, only Britons whose official primary residence is in France were to be allowed in.
"Unless they hold French residency, British citizens are now considered third country citizens and can no longer transit France by road to reach their country of residence in the EU," Eurotunnel said in a tweet late Wednesday.
The change had caused dismay among Britons who embarked on holiday trips "in good faith," the French Interior Ministry said, acknowledging the "difficulties in returning to their country of residence."
P&O Ferries issued a similar tweet warning that “only those with French residency will be permitted to enter France.”
A French interior ministry official said it had not changed its list of “compelling” reasons enabling Britons to travel to France, but had clarified their application this month by border police.
“It seems logical to consider them like all other third-country citizens, and to not allow their transit toward another EU country,” the official told AFP, asking not to be identified by name.
All tourism and professional travel from Britain has been suspended since December 18 as France tries to slow the spread of the omicron Covid variant.
On its travel advice website, the British government said France had indicated that Britons would not be allowed to transit France “unless they are traveling by air.”
“We are urgently seeking further clarification from the French government, and in the meantime advise UK nationals returning to other European countries via France to check with their carrier before traveling,” it said.
The change caught hundreds of Britons off guard as they prepared to return from family visits over the holidays.
“I’m completely lost. It doesn’t make any sense,” Fiona Navin-Jones, a school teacher who was hoping to return to Belgium, where she has lived with her family for 14 years, told AFP.
They decided to risk their Eurotunnel trip anyway on Thursday, where they were told at the terminal that getting through would depend on the border official.
“I got through so I guess I was lucky!” she said.
Eurostar, the passenger train service which many Britons use to return to homes in Belgium and elsewhere, also warned users earlier this month about the French rule change.
But it was not clear if they were being systematically applied at the three Eurostar stations in England.
One Twitter user who was turned away at the last minute this week by French police as he tried to board the Eurotunnel shuttle posted that he was able to return to Brussels by train.
“The FR customs said they had been handed the paper in the last few hours that clarified the compelling reasons rule. They even seemed a little frustrated,” wrote Roland Moore, a public relations executive in Belgium.
Paris and London have been at loggerheads over a range of thorny subjects, including fishing and illegal immigration, since Britain’s official exit from the EU nearly two years ago.
That prompted several travelers to wonder if the new French policy was the latest skirmish between the two countries.
“Reason has prevailed — but I feel so sorry for families based in Belgium with residence but no passport,” Navin-Jones said.
“French rules still stink. You can quote me.”