According to IAR, several thousand Polish truck drivers have been stuck at the British-French border for more than three days after the border was closed on Monday due to a new, highly contagious coronavirus strain detected in the UK.
France reopened the border at midnight, but only allowed those with a negative coronavirus test. The British authorities said that all drivers would be tested as soon as possible.
“They talk about some COVID test but there are no COVID tests,” Błażej Pankiewicz, a trucker from the northern Polish city of Toruń, told the Reuters news agency. Pankiewicz said he was extremely sad to be missing Christmas back home with his family.
According to Reuters, Britain said it would hand out tests to some of the 8,000-10,000 truckers stranded in the area and that it would take time to roll out. Reuters also quoted local officials as saying that a testing unit was supposed to be on its way to the port.
On Wednesday, scuffles broke out between the drivers and the police. One arrest was made.
Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said he had been in touch with Britain's Boris Johnson and French President Emmanuel Macron about the jam. “This can be done differently. This whole process could've been better organized,” he said.
In an interview with state broadcaster TVP Info, Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Marcin Przydacz said he appealed to British Foreign Office Minister Wendy Morton for more mobile testing sites.
(jh/gs)
Source: PAP/Reuters/TVP Info