Fears of long queues at ports on the first day of passport checks for travellers leaving Britain have proved unfounded.

Border Force officer checking passports of in Terminal 2, The Queen Terminal, at Heathrow Airport, as passport checks on travellers leaving Britain are being brought in.

Border Force officer checking passports of in Terminal 2, The Queen Terminal, at Heathrow Airport, as passport checks on travellers leaving Britain are being brought in. Image by Steve Parsons/PA Wire

The two main areas where delays might have been expected were the approaches to the port of Dover in Kent and at the nearby Channel Tunnel terminal at Folkestone.

But with the Government deciding to introduce the checks in a phased way, the Dover ferry companies and Eurotunnel reported a trouble-free day.

A spokeswoman for P&O Ferries at Dover said: “There have been no queues coming into the port.”

Eurotunnel public affairs director John Keefe said: “Everything has been going smoothly since we went live with the checks at 6am today.

“We asked passengers to have their passports to hand and just one passenger left their’s in the boot of their vehicle.”

For the first month, only 25% of passports will be fully checked, with this percentage moving to 50% after one month, and 100% by the middle of June.

However, Eurotunnel decided to implement full checks right from the start. “We expected it to go well and it did,” said Mr Keefe.

(Press Association)