Travelled back from Paris to the UK through Calais a few weeks ago with a local coach company. In front of us at the Border Control was a FlixBus. The custom officers made everyone on the FlixBus get off, plus all their luggage, scanned their luggage, then gave the coach a thorough search. Our driver said this was not uncommon with FlixBus. We one the other hand got off, walked through passport control, got back onboard and drove on.
Are you a UK passport holder? Were you told why your fingerprints were needed?
Scheduled service at individual fares (Flix) vs. tour bus, by any chance? Scheduled services always get more attention.
Yes I am a UK passport holder. No, I wasn’t told but I regularly get questioned and searched when entering the UK by ferry or Eurotunnel (never at an Airport). All started to happen after was being friendly to the UK customs officer and having a chat about why I leave the UK for periods of not much longer than 24 hours most weekends.
This has happened every time I have travelled with FlixBus.
Actually it can happen, there are also reports of border officials boarding trains at borders between EU countries and completing checks.
Found this. Not very informative but random checks can and do happen.
Good question and it has me intrigued. There has to be a damn good reason why people traveling Flix are being targeted. I made one trip many moon's ago with Eurolines from Amsterdam and everyone had to disembark at Calais, it took so long and it was my one and only trip to the continent by road.
It’s not just FlixBus. Arrive at Calais or Dover with a Bla Bla Car Bus then the same happens to them also.
That is because of the common travel area. There is no need for the normal formal checks.
Because it varies... Helsinki before they got the new CT scanners were quite happy with belts on; now they have CT scanners - laptop and liquids are ok, belts are not because.
Yes, but that means any EU's who have got into Ireland from the continent legitimately with just their ID card have entered the UK with zero processing. Not that it's an issue, but when you consider all UK ports of entry (other than those from the Republic) will be putting severe measures in place to keep out EU "undesirables" such as full passport, entry form, profiling etc anyone wanting to bypass all that can simply fly to Dublin, enter the CTA with just their ID card and get that very same ferry. Unchecked and over here.
My understanding was that Ireland maintains immigration controls for the CTA, rather than just those eligible for entry to Ireland. That is, if they think you’re entering Ireland for the purpose of then entering the UK without eligibility, they’ll refuse you entry at their border.
That might be the case, but they don't have to say they intend to go to the UK and Ireland lets them in. Ireland doesn't check if they have booked any nights or have the money for the trip, just like we weren't going abroad (EU) in the good old days.
Half the mobile operators havent enforced roaming charges and the ones that do you buy an EU pass for £10 to use your normal allowance.
Eeeh, I dont like that idea, for the same reason I normally use my debit card but always try to have £50 on me. IT fails, alot, and if your going to go to a biometric ONLY system, you're going to end up with lots of stranded people while you try to figure out which ethernet cord the mouse nibbled through. Theirs nothing wrong with biometrics being the main system you use but telling people that they don't need to bring their passport is going to take away any backups
Trouble is, as I discovered 11 years ago is that if the IT goes down, then your passport is of no use at the Border and you won't be let in. They got the system running again after 45 minutes or so, but we nearly missed our connecting flight as a result.
I don't really appreciate getting called a dinosaur for having an opinion about passport systems, that sounds like UK Border Forces problem for not having any offline backup system, not a reason to throw out physical passports entirely. Most countries apart from Britain have mandatory photo ID rules too, and telling Brits they can go without passports is just going to lead to lots of people ending up with fines as they didnt realise it was only in regards to the airport.
Or possibly because ID isn't required prior to boarding unlike airlines, so chancers might hope that they at least get to the UK border where they could initiate asylum proceedings.
ID is required before boarding on Flixbus; I had to show the driver my passport when travelling London to Paris.
Ah right, didn't know that. Perhaps that is as a result of them being targeted at the border?
Yes, but the driver won't be checking whether you have entry permission (unlike at an airport where the airline staff are trained on such things). The reasons are a mixture of @route101 and @Bantamzen.