French customs officers are alleged to have “intimidated and harassed” a young student during a simulation of post-Brexit border checks.
Camille Hulot, 19, said three border officials rounded on her at Paris’s Gare du Nord train station amid delays caused by strikes by guards seeking to demonstrate how Britain’s EU exit will disrupt travel.
Eurostar said on Tuesday it has contacted senior customs officials to request an urgent investigation into Hulot’s treatment, which she described as “strong intimidation and harassment” that had reduced her to tears.
Hulot, a King’s College student who travels regularly between France and Britain, said the officers began teasing her about being hungry once she reached the border checkpoint at the station after a three-and-a-half hour wait on Monday.
“[As] I went through the security check which I’m used to, one [of the officers] took my lunch and joked on how he was hungry,” she told HuffPost UK.
As she attempted to retrieve her food, Hulot said one of the officers became angry. “He got mad directly telling me he was just being nice and then threw my lunch far so I couldn’t reach it,” she recalled.
“Then I was facing three agents who starting badly talking to me, telling me that I needed to learn how to respect. I was not answering and just trying to leave but they stood in front of me, staring at me.
“Then [they] questioned me, but I was not used to being asked such questions at Eurostar. I answered and told them to check my bags if they wanted to and they took their time.”
Hulot added in a tweet that other passengers who attempted to defend her also received apparently enhanced security checks.
“I had done nothing wrong. It was unexpected and I guess they wanted to show what would happen after Brexit, but it was odd and really just created major delays,” she added.
The incident came amid strikes by French customs officers, which trade unions have said replicate what would happen in the event of a no-deal Brexit.
French trade unions said the strikes, which have been ongoing since 4 March, aim to persuade the country’s government to recruit more border staff and improve pay.
The unions claim working conditions for guards working at checkpoints such as Gare du Nord, Paris’s Charles de Gaulle airport, and the port at Calais, will be intolerable if Britain leaves the EU without a deal.
“Our aim is to attract attention to our worsening conditions of work which will only get worse once Brexit happens,” one union official, Vincent Thomazo, told the Local.fr last week.
The French equivalent of the UK Border Force, the Douanes, has been approached for comment.
Eurostar told HuffPost UK in a statement: “We are very sorry to hear of Camille’s experience. Clearly this behaviour is totally unacceptable and we have asked that French customs investigate this at a senior level as a matter of urgency.”
The cross-Channel train operator has advised passengers travelling from Paris to the UK to arrive well ahead of their planned departure time as the strike action continues to disrupt journeys.
“To enable pre-travel checks to go as smoothly as possible, please follow the guidelines on your ticket advising when you should arrive at the station. It’s important to continue to use the original scheduled departure time. Arriving later could mean you risk missing your train,” Eurostar said.
The prospect of a no-deal Brexit looms large following the admission by the UK’s attorney general, Geoffrey Cox, that the risk of Britain languishing in the so-called backstop insurance mechanism remains, despite the prime minister, Theresa May, embarking on a last-minute renegotiation with Brussels this week.
MPs in the House of Commons are due to vote once more on May’s withdrawal deal, which now includes the hard-fought additions. But if they vote against it, EU chiefs have insisted “there will be no third chance”, leaving Britain on course to crash out of the bloc on 29 March.