Travellers heading to the UK have been warned to expect “long wait times” at the Port of Calais today, following queues stretching beyond six hours the night before.
Ferry operator DFDS said on Sunday: “We are expecting long wait times to complete controls, please take this into consideration when travelling to the port, factoring in sufficient breaks for food and water before arriving.”
Passengers faced queues of more than seven hours at the Port of Dover when heading out for summer holidays in mid-July.
Many travellers will now be heading back to the UK as the school holidays draw to a close.
On Saturday night, huge queues stretched from Calais port, forcing ferry companies to apologise. DFDS blamed “high levels of traffic at the Port of Calais” for “waiting times of up to six hours to complete all controls.”
One person reported an eight-and-a-half-hour wait at the height of the problems on Saturday and the port’s social media accounts were full of complaints.
More from News
“Really hard to overstate what a fiasco Calais port is tonight. We have been there for eight and a half hours and have just finally made it into a boat. No one organising the cars. Incredible delays at Border Force. Utter fiasco with no apparent cause,” a tweet read.
Others said they had experienced queues of four hours.
“A 260 minute wait at the Port of Calais with 2 young kids. Delayed further to a 10pm ferry, why were 9 UK border force lanes shut!?!” one woman wrote.
P&O Ferries said: “We apologise for the wait times this evening in Calais. This is due to the queues at border control. We have put on an additional sailing to accommodate all those that have been stuck in the queues. Once you are through you will be on the next crossing.”
Queues at border control were down to between 45 to 60 minutes by midday on Sunday, DFDS said.
Passengers also suffered in queues at the port in late August, The Independent reported, due to delays to passport checks and a Eurotunnel train breaking down the previous day.
A spokesman for the Home Office said they understood it was frustrating waiting to go through the UK border.
“There are many factors that influence wait times and we continue to work closely with industry to keep these to a minimum.”
The department said it was working closely with port operators, industry partners and French counterparts to ensure officers were deployed flexibly and when required to meet demand.
The Border Force resource was deployed not just to carry out essential checks at the border but also to detect harmful goods and safeguard vulnerable and exploited individuals, it said.
Maurice Saatchi: I used to adore capitalism – then I had lunch with Margaret Thatcher