Thousands of cross-Channel travellers face a third day of chaos today caused by fishermen blockading French ports.

There was a brief respite last night when the protesters began allowing some ferries into Calais. Boulogne and Dunkirk remained blocked.

A line of lorries stretching deep into Kent has been forming since Tuesday when 100 fishing boats manoeuvred into position across the entrances to the ports, paralysing ferry traffic. As hauliers, holidaymakers and business travellers waited, P&O cancelled sailings to all three ports.

On the French side traffic was delayed further by a “snail operation” on the A16 autoroute as the fishermen adopted the tactics of striking farmers and lorry owners by driving slowly in formation across all lanes.

Passengers stranded on both sides of the Channel finally got back on the move at about 8.15pm as the blockade at Calais was lifted, although P&O warned that the protest was likely to resume at dawn. It expected to clear the backlog of 450 freight vehicles queuing on the M20 in Kent by midnight. About 600 lorries were waiting at Calais with 1,200 passengers still stuck at the French port.

On the Calais dockside was a coach carrying 49 members of the Cwmbran Otters swimming club returning from a training camp in France. Among the children in the party was Casey-May Ratcliff, 8, a diabetic, who was running out of insulin. Her grandfather, Gerald Sims, said: “If we get back to Cwmbran by 8am tomorrow it should be all right but after that we will be out of insulin.”

Helen Van Herp, 34, was stranded with her son, Devon, 4, who was being brought back to Britain for an operation in Liverpool. She said: “We really need him to undergo this operation so we have to get back — we’re so anxious, we cannot believe it.”

While some travellers diverted to take the Eurotunnel, the Calais branch of the CFDT, one of France’s biggest unions, was threatening to blockade the tunnel in “solidarity” with the fishermen. It was thought unlikely, however, that police would allow that to happen.

French public opinion appears to be broadly in sympathy with the fishermen after weeks in which mass dismissals have prompted factory occupations and strikes. In a poll published yesterday by the market research company BVA, 55 per cent of respondents thought that “radical social action” was justified and 64 per cent said that those involved should not be punished.

Outside the Eastern Docks in Dover, holidaymakers and business travellers were less sympathetic. Margaret Eden, 62, and her husband, Tony, were forced to sleep in their car after arriving on Tuesday to discover that ferries had been suspended.

“Every time there’s a problem, the French try to blockade the ports and stop the tourists going to France, but we have no say over the issue,” she said. “We are just going to wait. When you’ve stuck it out for one night, you might as well wait and keep your fingers crossed.”

The independent boat owners of the Opal Coast, the French side of the Strait of Dover, mounted the latest in a long history of port protests to stave off what they said was the destruction of their livelihood by unfair EU quotas on cod and sole catches.

Michel Barnier, the French Agriculture Minister, held talks with union leaders last night after they ignored an order from a Boulogne court to open the harbours or face fines of up to ¤5,000 (£4,500) per boat per hour. After the talks the French Government said it was offering ¤4 million in aid to fishermen in northern France but ruled out changes to EU quotas.

The Boulogne judge granted the order after P&O and LD, another ferry company, sought an injunction. P&O said that it was losing £1 million a day. “I cannot remember a blockade quite as bad as this and we are looking at the possibility of seeking compensation from the French authorities,” a spokesman said.

Siege mentality

1806 Napoleon tries to bring down British commerce with a series of blockades known as the Continental System. French allies are told to refuse to trade with Britain but several rebel and the plan fails

1996-97 Lorry drivers twice stage blockades over poor pay deals, bringing chaos to Europe’s roads

August 2000 About 700 French fishermen block the Channel Tunnel and prevent ferries crossing between Dover and Calais, in a protest at diesel costs. Hundreds of holidaymakers wait for hours at ports, and lorries queue for five miles along the M20

January 2001 French beef farmers block traffic at toll booths in protest at the French Government’s plan to screen 20,000 cows a week for BSE

December 2003 When French fishermen threaten to blockade Calais, Boulogne and Dunkirk, P&O ferries say they will run four-hour mini-cruises into the Channel, allowing passengers to shop at cheap duty rates in French waters

May 2008 Angry fishermen protesting over fuel prices hold 30 boats carrying 60 British holidaymakers hostage for more than a week

Source: Times Archive

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