French customs agents' strike disrupts Calais port

French customs officials' second day of 'work-to-rule' strikes has caused lengthy delays for lorries heading for the Channel Tunnel at the port of Calais on Tuesday.

Their stated aim is to improve pay and staff numbers ahead of Brexit on 29 March and to demonstrate what will happen if greater controls are not put in place once Britain leaves the European Union.

"Agents are doing longer checks than usual and it creates traffic jams immediately," Vincent Thomazo from the custom agents’ union said. "It's a strike that might last a long time because officers are just doing their jobs."

The Elysee had already announced the recruitment of an extra 700 customs officials to cope with the demands of Brexit, but unions wanted more.

"Brexit is a catalyst for deeper anger," one union official quoted by the BBC said.

The queue of trucks reached several kilometers in length along the A16 motorway into the port of Calais with some truckers having reported on Monday that they had to wait six or seven hours before being able to load their trucks onto boats heading to the UK.

Delays were also reported in the area around the port of Dunkirk.

The head of customs services at Calais, Rodolphe Gintz, told AFP that the strike had "absolutely nothing" to do with Brexit.

"It won't happen like this. We are not going to create queues of trucks. We're not going to inspect every truck one after the other for a minute," he said on Monday according to France24.

He said controls would be placed on trucks arriving from Britain and that extra resources would be assigned if necessary.