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By Reuters 
2h ago
WARNING: GRAPHIC LANGUAGE ON VIDEO
Peter Nicholls and Gerry Mey
Dover, UK – Angry truckers stranded in the English port of Dover clashed with police as Britain sought to get traffic through the Canal to move after a partial blockade of France to contain a highly infectious variant of the coronavirus.
Paris and London agreed on Tuesday night that drivers with a negative test result could board the ferries to Calais from Wednesday after much of the world closed its borders to Britain to contain the new mutated variant.
The British government has enlisted the armed forces to help, but there was confusion among drivers on how to get tested, warning that it would take time to clear the truck jam, hammering Britain’s most important trade route for food just days before. to leave Europe. Orbit of the Union.
“Testing has started as we expect traffic to move again between the UK and France,” UK Transport Minister Grant Shapps said on Twitter. “However, the French border police only acted in agreement as of this morning and serious delays continue.”
Huge lines of trucks have piled up on a motorway to the Eurotunnel Channel Tunnel and on the roads to Dover in southeastern Kent County, while others have parked at nearby Manston’s old airport.
With no road signs to the European continent and confusion about how to get tested for coronavirus, tempers began to flare among drivers, many from Eastern Europe who don’t speak English and are angry that they won’t be able to go home. their families before Christmas.
Police said there had been riots in Dover and Manston “involving people waiting to cross the Channel” and that an arrest had been made.
“This is not how it should work. We have no information, people need to seek information,” Mekki Coskun from Dortmund in Germany told Reuters.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said he had contacted Britain’s Boris Johnson and French President Emmanuel Macron about the problem.
“This can be done differently. This whole process could have been organized better,” he said.
The Trucking Association, which estimated there were up to 10,000 trucks stopped in Kent, said it was chaos.
“The border is still closed, the testing regime is not happening yet, the truckers are very angry, and we are starting to see a little break in law and order among the very frustrated guys who want to go back. Christmas,” said Rod McKenzie , RHA Policy Managing Director.
Typically between 7,500 and 8,500 trucks travel through the port every day, but volumes have reached more than 10,000 recently.
Getlink, the Canal Tunnel operator, said that only 45 trucks had arrived in France between midnight and 1100 GMT.
MORE DISRUPTION OF BREXIT
Some of the additional traffic was the result of Christmas demand, but many were in the country to deliver products to companies that are stockpiling parts before Britain finally leaves the EU on December 31, a move that is expected to cause more. upsets in January when a full customs border enters into force.
The British Retail Consortium, an industry lobby group, has warned that until the backlog of trucks clears and supply chains return to normal, there could be issues with the availability of some fresh produce.
Logistics companies have also said that many European drivers had already refused to come to Britain in the new year when they would have to carry customs paperwork, and the need to secure a coronavirus test will further exacerbate the situation, which it will drive up freight prices.
Drivers will first perform a quick lateral flow test. Anyone who records a positive result will undergo a more comprehensive PCR test, which takes longer to get a result, and anyone who tests positive again will have a hotel room to isolate themselves.
Many of the drivers, mostly European, many stranded with their trucks and without access to hot food or toilet facilities, believe they are pawns in a political showdown between Britain and the EU as trade talks reach a climax.
“We have no food to eat, we have no drink, we have nothing, no one … cares about us,” said Stella Vradzheva, a driver for Sterlcha in Bulgaria.
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