Hundreds of people travelling to the UK had been held up in queues for many hours in Calais, reportedly with “no water and bad toilet facilities”.
Massive disruptions to people’s cross-Channel journeys were caused this week by delays to passport checks at the Port of Calais, as well as a Eurotunnel train breaking down on the previous day.
At the port, Peter Naldrett said he and his family were stuck in a “ludicrous” queue for about eight hours before reaching the UK Border Control barriers on Wednesday night.
The family’s P&O ferry back to Britain was scheduled to depart at 4pm, but they were still stuck in one of the five open lanes past 10pm. Eleven other lanes were shut, he said.
The writer and teacher, who had been on a road trip in Scandinavia, Germany and the Netherlands, tweeted: “All the ferry staff I’ve spoken to have told me that it’s been the UK border checks causing delays all week.
“We were booked on the 4pm ferry to get back to Sheffield for my son’s GCSE results – looking like we’ll have to drive straight to school.”
He said the UK government is “Priti incompetent” – referring to home secretary Priti Patel, adding that he believed the delays had “everything to do” with the “government supposedly running the country.”
Mehmood Abdul Hayee told MailOnline that he and his family were stuck in the queue for more than four hours with “no food, no water and bad toilet facilities”.
He was travelling with his three children and disabled parents, who he said “cannot walk or sit very long”.
Amid the chaos and boredom, a band of musicians – called Bristol Street Music – sat on top of their van and performed an impromptu gig in the hopes of helping pass the time more quickly.
A Home Office for comment spokesperson said: “Border Force continue to work closely with operators, French counterparts and relevant government agencies to minimise disruption in advance of the busy bank holiday weekend.
“Wait times that some passengers may have experienced today follow disruption caused by technical issues on cross channel services yesterday evening – now resolved – which had considerable knock on effects.”
On Tuesday, Eurotunnel passengers were left stranded for nearly five hours inside the Channel Tunnel after a train broke down.
Footage from the Eurotunnel Le Shuttle showed people being evacuated through an emergency service tunnel alongside the 31-mile rail route between the UK and France after having to abandon their vehicles.
The travellers were then transferred to a cargo train to be taken to the Folkestone terminal in Kent. A few of them described the incident as “terrifying” and “like a disaster movie”.
