The Freight Transport Association is urging authorities to get a strong grip on the migration crisis which yesterday saw Calais port having to close.

Hundreds of people breached perimeter fences at the docks and around 50 stormed on board a P&O ferry, the Spirit of Britain.

The action led to a shutdown of the port for much of Saturday evening, until French police managed to remove the group from the ferry. Services got back to normal just before 9pm.

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Today, Julie Maddocks of the Tunbridge-Wells based association (FTA) said the organisation had 'huge sympathy' with genuine migrants and the conditions they are facing across Europe.

But she said drivers using Calais report being threatened with knives, guns, bricks and stones 'on a daily basis.'

She added: "These are desperate people who are taking desperate measures and sadly this is not the first time we've seen this sort of occasion in Calais. It is very frightening for our drivers.

"The FTA would like to see a proper procedure put in place as far as genuine asylum seekers are concerned, and people in authority and the French government to take action as soon as possible.

"We have huge sympathy with migrants but at the moment there isn't a proper procedure in place to be fair to them and their human rights, which are extremely important.

"But we need to remember the human rights of our drivers - who are trying to do their jobs and deliver goods. Where do their human rights come into play?"

The head of the Road Haulage Association, Richard Burnett, has called for the military to be deployed at Calais docks.

It is being reported around 35 people were arrested after a day of demonstrations in northern France which saw a mass rally attended by 2,000 people, before the port was stormed.

it is said British anarchists are among those being detained.

Earlier on Saturday Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn visited Dunkirk where about 4,000 migrants are living.