Euronews
Fiona Navin-Jones spent the 24 hours before her trip home fretting. Would she make it, or would she have to leave her family behind?
Navin-Jones, her husband, their three young children and dog had spent their Christmas holiday near London with family, a celebration they missed last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
They were supposed to leave England for their home in Belgium on Thursday. But the day before their scheduled departure, Navin-Jones came upon an “urgent update” on the Eurotunnel’s Twitter account informing customers that British citizens who are not French residents could not travel through France by road to reach their country of residence in the European Union.
“It was just so bizarre,” Navin-Jones told Euronews. “We were really respectful of the rules. But we would never have travelled had this rule been clear before.”
British nationals like Navin-Jones who live in the EU and travelled to the United Kingdom for the holidays are now scrambling to make alternative arrangements. Many are voicing frustration on social media over what appears to be a bungled announcement of the new rule. It is unclear who is exempt from it and when it came into effect, but it appears nationals of other EU countries are allowed to cross the border into France to return home.
Eurotunnel said its announcement was prompted by a French government decision on Tuesday, while the British Embassy in Paris confirmed the news in a tweet Thursday. British citizens can still commute through France as long as they travel by air.
France has not publicly commented on the new rules, and an email from Euronews to the French Interior Ministry went unanswered.
The British embassies in Belgium and the Netherlands both said on Wednesday that they were “urgently seeking clarifications” from the French government, which a spokesman from the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office reiterated to Euronews on Thursday.
The French government earlier this month banned most travel to and from the UK due to the rising number of coronavirus cases in both countries. Since then case numbers have skyrocketed in France. Health authorities said Wednesday more than 200,000 cases were reported in just 24 hou…
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