Roissy Airport (France) (AFP)

You have your passport, your plane ticket, your negative PCR test, but do you have your travel certificate and supporting documents?

Since Monday morning in Roissy, as in all French airports, passengers on flights leaving the European Union must present a "compelling reason" to leave the territory.

At the border control post of terminal 2E of Charles-de-Gaulle airport, the passage was carried out calmly on Monday morning but this new restriction adds a dose of anxiety for some travelers.

Around 8 a.m., about twenty passengers out of nearly 300 had already been prevented from boarding.

"I had indicated as a reason (on the certificate, editor's note) that my mother is sick but they told me that I needed proof," he told AFP.

"It's been a while since I saw her."

Armed with a poor-resolution certificate sent by his mother's doctor to WhatsApp, the forty-something retires his luck a few minutes later.

And this time passes the dam successfully.

Prime Minister Jean Castex announced on Friday evening the ban on any entry into France or exit from the national territory from or to a country located outside the EU.

With this new tightening of the sanitary screw, the government hopes to curb the spread of the Covid-19 epidemic and thus avoid a new containment.

"Jean Castex breaks the c ...", mutters a passenger, who did not wish to give his name, while awaiting his turn in the queue of border control.

Although provided with the travel certificate issued by the Ministry of the Interior, he awaits his passage in front of the police officer with concern: "we cross our fingers," he breathes.

- Extended checks -

By restricting international travel, the French authorities hope to prevent additional contamination but also to restrict the circulation of new variants of the virus, which could aggravate the pandemic.

"The idea is to limit return loops from foreign countries," Julien Gentile, director of the PAF at Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle and Le Bourget airports, told AFP.

The airlines carry out a first verification of the documents at check-in, then the PAF carries out a second check when leaving the territory.

Forced to consult the documents of all travelers, the airport authorities have closed the airlocks of automated passages.

The PAF check of parts, usually on the order of a few tens of seconds, can now take up to five or ten minutes to determine whether the traveler's reason for travel is indeed compelling.

With, sometimes, a part of the subjective.

"If you are going to meditate at a person's grave, if it is not a recent death, it may seem a little cruel but you will not leave. You will have to wait for the evolution of the health crisis", indicates Cécile Aerdeman, head of the cross-border control service.

As a result of these cumbersome formalities, the queues grew longer in the middle of the morning when crossing the border at Roissy.

© 2021 AFP