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For about two days, near the British port of Dover, hundreds of trucks and their drivers have been blocked due to France’s decision to cut most of the connections with the United Kingdom, due to the discovery of a new variant of the widespread coronavirus especially. on British soil.
France is not the only country that has decided to suspend ties with the United Kingdom, according to BBC news There are currently more than 50, but their decision has had far greater consequences than the bans imposed by other countries. The disruption of connections involved both the flow of cars and trucks through the Eurotunnel, the only stretch of road connecting the UK to the European continent, and shipping from the English city of Dover to the French city of Calais, another very important commercial trade.
The result is that hundreds of trucks get stuck in the rest areas set up by the British authorities in an old airport in the town of Manston – which has long been destined to accommodate trucks in case of disruption by Brexit – and on the sides of the M20 motorway. According to the British government, there were more than 1,500 trucks queuing near Dover on Tuesday morning, including nearly 900 at Manston Airport. In the next few hours, unless the French authorities decide to resume connections, the situation could get even worse as all trucks coming from the mainland and have made deliveries to British territory must return.
Manston Airport, which is becoming a truck park for Dover, is where Brexit and UKIP began. The party took control of Thanet’s council in 2015, a major foothold, after the airport closed.
Farage campaigned to reopen Manston. Brexit has done that pic.twitter.com/sye7pooHDY
– Sebastián Payne (@SebastianEPayne) December 22, 2020
France and the UK are negotiating to unblock the situation, and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and French President Emmanuel Macron spoke by phone on Tuesday morning. The French government has demanded that in exchange for reestablishing connections, truck drivers are cleaned to prevent them from helping to spread the new variant of the coronavirus throughout the continent. It is not clear what the position of Johnson is, who as of Monday night had tried to minimize the problem by explaining that the queues involved a few dozen trucks.
France information wrote that France is considering the possibility of admitting French truckers and those residing in France on its territory as long as they test negative for the coronavirus. However, the news has yet to be officially confirmed.
The government says there are 1,523 trucks parked on the M20 + at Manston Airfield. Several hundred more spent the night in Dover and on the side of the M2. I know this because I passed them on the way home last night. This was the boardwalk in Dover. Think of poor drivers pic.twitter.com/MFYenRvNqq
– Joel Hills (@ITVJoel) December 22, 2020
The European Commission has recommended that France and other European countries reestablish ties with the UK, albeit partially, but it is unclear which countries will follow the advice.
My brother just sent me this. He is trapped in #Manston at present. ???? pic.twitter.com/xnpKVsNdUl
– Lukasz (@LukWSM) December 22, 2020
In the first days of 2021, the problem could reappear when the United Kingdom permanently leaves the European Union, especially if a commercial agreement is not found between the two parties. Among other things, one of the sites identified by the British government to stop trucks in case of inconvenience due to Brexit, a piece of land near the town of Ashford, will only be completed in February because bad weather prevented some major renovations.
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