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Hundreds of UK-bound migrants were today taking advantage of wildcat strikes which blockaded both Calais port and the Channel Tunnel.

Hugely chaotic scenes saw French riot police trying to hold back large numbers of would-be asylum seekers trying to get to Dover.

“The situation is extremely tense,” said a police source in Calais. “Industrial action is leading to big build-ups of traffic, and the migrants are trying very hard to get into lorries.

“The jams are stretching along slips roads, and back on to the motorway. It is very fraught and dangerous.”

Some 100 workers from MyFerryLink are facing redundancy and they joined supporters blockading the entrance to the Tunnel from dawn.

With the undersea link closed, tailbacks soon started building up on the A16 motorway, as CRS riot police started to arrive.

There were also “sympathy” strikes in the port itself, with around 50 protestors trying to stop ferries from leaving for England.

MyFerryLink – which used to be called SeaFrance – faces closure after Eurotunnel announced in May that it is ending its partnership with the ferry company, meaning some 600 French workers face redundancy.

Ferries which sail between Britain and France are owned by the Scop Sea France cooperative, which wants France’s Socialist government to intervene to protect jobs.

British cross-Channel ferry travellers faced disruption as a result of today's industrial action.

Eurotunnel said it had reduced its shuttle train services which transport passengers and heavy trucks between Calais and Folkestone.

A spokesman said: "Traffic is disrupted but there are still trains running."

All ferry services to and from the Port of Dover in Kent were being affected by the strike.

A spokesman for the port said the situation was being monitored closely amid hopes that ferry services would return to normal operations "as soon as possible".

Aid workers have reported a "catastrophic" situation, with predictions that some 2,000 more migrants displaced from war-torn countries including Eritrea, Syria and Afghanistan could arrive in Calais over the summer.

British truckers have reported facing violence, intimidation and fears of being fined if migrants clamber aboard their trucks. Some now take lengthy detours to avoid Calais altogether.