Britain: Anti-immigrant protest leads to closure of Dover International Port

London, Sept 5 (KUNA) -- British police said on Saturday that dozens of masked protesters disrupted traffic at Dover port, which links the United Kingdom with France and other European countries. The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) quoted local police as confirming that the demonstration, whose organizers remain unknown, caused delays in the departure of passengers and vehicles from ships arriving from France and the Netherlands. Long queues of stranded cars formed outside the port, located in southern England, due to the closure of a major road. The BBC stated that the protesters carried banners reading “Stop the Boats,” a reference to the thousands of illegal migrants who cross the English Channel from France to Britain each year. Dover is Britain’s largest and most important sea border crossing, handling more than 15,000 cars and 10,000 freight trucks daily, with annual commercial trade valued at 144 billion pounds sterling (194 billion dollars), equivalent to 33 percent of the UK’s total trade with the European Union. (End) M.R.N. / T.M.A.