The Hague:
Dutch customs officials have been filmed confiscating sandwiches and other meals from passengers on a ferry from Britain, blaming new post-Brexit trade guidelines.
Officers in higher-visibility jackets and face masks are observed stopping auto and lorry drivers at the Hook of Holland port, in the footage filmed final week by the Avrotros public broadcaster.
“Welcome to the Brexit, sir… I’m sorry,” says a single official as he seizes the foil-wrapped sandwiches of a single stunned driver, who is mentioned by the broadcaster to be Polish.
The driver plaintively asks the Dutch customs officer if he can “take off the meat and you leave me the bread?”
But the Dutch official replies: “No, everything will be confiscated.”
Another driver is observed obtaining fish items seized.
Drivers can not say they had been not warned: the British government in December gave the instance of ham and cheese sandwiches of a meals that could not cross to the continent right after Britain formally abandoned EU trade guidelines on January 1.
The new post-Brexit guidelines say that bringing foods that include meat or dairy into the EU, even for private use, is forbidden.
The rule is intended to stop the entry of foods that could spread illnesses.
The new Brexit guidelines have also hit grocery retailer Marks and Spencer, which wasn’t capable to stock its common sandwiches and meals in France right after Britain’s official exit from the EU on January 1.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by employees and is published from a syndicated feed.)