[ad_1]
This Wednesday the blockade of France’s border with the United Kingdom was lifted, but the queues on the English side have not diminished, with thousands of truckers cornered waiting to resume their trip. Christmas at home is already impossible for many drivers, including the Portuguese who are stranded.
The president of the National Association of Public Transport of Goods by Road (Antram), Pedro Polónio, told the PUBLIC on Wednesday that they are in the United Kingdom waiting to pass “more than 300 or 400 Portuguese drivers.” “We are talking about a place where 10,000 trucks pass every day. Now they spend less because it is Christmas Eve, last week. If it were last week, more than 40 thousand were already standing there, ”he explained, adding that the total number of vehicles should be around 10,000.
“It is an unworthy shame of today and of serious politicians,” criticizes Pedro Polónio, pointing a finger at the decision of the executive of Emmanuel Macron, who accuses of using the thousands of detained workers “as a weapon” for a political issue. under the guise of public health.
“What would be a temporary risk of passing through the south of England is now a danger, it ends up exposing people to a risk,” explains the leader. The new strain of coronavirus appeared in force in this part of the country, something that would not be a greater risk for most truckers, since “most of them come directly from the north and pass without stopping.”
No conditions or information
None of the drivers with whom the president of Antram has been in contact has been tested during a process that is being “too long”. There are truck drivers parked on the M20, detained at the Port of Dover and others who have been redirected to the disabled airport runway in Manston.
“They are left abandoned, without conditions,” he laments. “They are surviving alone and with some help that we can provide over the phone, whatever it is. There will be no shortage of money, but money in the middle of the desert is not worth it, and in practice they are in the middle of the desert ”.
José Manuel Carvalho is one of the truckers who was redirected to the Manston track, 43 kilometers from the port of Dover. The Portuguese began their return journey to Dover on Monday to catch the train to Calais. This Tuesday he crossed the cut of the M20 motorway, having given the address of the airport where he must wait for authorization to resume the trip to the French side. You don’t know how many trucks are on the site.
“There are queues until you get out of sight. It is a complete track and the conditions are not adequate ”, he tells PÚBLICO. The bathrooms are removable, made of plastic, and each one serves dozens of people, “without the minimum hygiene conditions” or disinfection. A situation that worries the Portuguese even more because of the epidemiological context. “If a person is infected, we pollute too. We have to stay in the cabin as long as possible to protect ourselves.”
Hundreds of trucks were diverted to a decommissioned airport in Manston, 43 kilometers from the port of Dover.
PETER NICHOLLS / Reuters
“We have no light. Yesterday morning the only thing they gave us was two bottles of water, so we spent the day. Today they put here a caravan to give us some food support. Meanwhile, volunteers came with light vehicles that touched the airport network and threw water and some hygiene products at us, ”said José Manuel Carvalho.
Pedro Polónio also added that one of the truckers told him that the authorities are trying to supply some drivers on the M20, where “some rice and grain” were distributed.
“It’s worth what it’s worth. Today, it was most deficient to let them starve, ”he said. More than that, “there is no concern, they are people who are going to be there 72 hours inside a truck, stopped, without leaving the same place, on Christmas Eve”.
Christmas away from home, in the UK or in transit
José Manuel Carvalho, who is in Manston with his son, Filipe Carvalho, also a pilot, says that he has not yet seen any team conducting tests on the covid-19 at the airport, which was supposed to be a test station and also served as a parking lot. emergency for part of the trucks. Spending Christmas at home is out of the question, and the concern now is whether they can leave the UK.
“I don’t know when I’m going to get out of here. Not today, maybe tomorrow, and let’s see if it will be tomorrow. Total despair. It is sad, unfortunate, we come to supply the markets and then we do this retention without prior notice ”, laments the driver, who says that the family is“ very discouraged ”. “They were counting on arriving in Portugal before Christmas.”
At best, José Manuel Carvalho hopes to get home next week.
“Next Tuesday, Wednesday, over there. We still have to load the car. Christmas, the weekend … Most likely we only have cargo on Monday. It is a very complicated situation. A trip that we could do in a week will take 15 days. And I don’t know, let’s see how it goes ”.
Another concern is the supplies available for the trip. With a few more days on the road, what was prepared for a certain number of days “is going to end.” Furthermore, whoever is at the airport is limited because it is “strictly forbidden to cook on the edge of the airport runway,” according to Filipe Carvalho.
A prelude to what can happen in January
Pedro Polónio warns that the extraordinary situation caused by the closing of the borders, “a true kidnapping”, will take several days to resolve, at least “until the weekend.” For companies, the loss is of the order of 400 euros a day for each truck, but the Antram president says he does not want to focus on economic losses. “The most important thing is the human issue of having ten thousand people there who were just working, they didn’t do any harm.”
The president emphasizes that truck queues are not new, but that this situation serves as a warning of what may happen as of January 1, if the “Brexit” negotiations do not prosper: if there is no agreement in this regard For trucks, the problem may take on proportions that “completely jeopardize normal UK supply”.
“What is happening in the supply during the last month is the most serious. It didn’t start now. In the last month, the number of trucks attacked by illegal immigrants, the number of hours to reach England and, above all, to leave England, was tough. We are talking about trucks that take 10, 11 hours, ”he says.
In December there was an increase in the flow of merchandise to “anticipate eventualities” at the beginning of the year. The higher flow, added to the fact that in winter the crossing is more difficult, caused congestion that made it impossible to transport to the United Kingdom. “A month will last, but normality cannot be the anomaly of the last month.”
And the problem is not in the number of trucks, but in the volume of tasks.
“Now a truck doesn’t have to stop until it gets on the boat. If you are forced to stop for administrative, customs and similar issues, the impact is brutal, “he explains. In one, two days lines of 30, 40 kilometers are created ”. On the English side this is uncomfortable, but on the French side it is a “serious” situation.
“That is practically a war zone. Stowaways [migrantes] They attack trucks to go to the English side. They spoil the merchandise. That’s why truckers have to sleep a lot, they can’t sleep near Calais to try not to stop. Now imagine what it is like to force them to stop because there are too many trucks, ”argues Pedro Polónio.
There is therefore a “real risk” that the UK operations will become unviable. “Let’s hope that those who govern us [a União Europeia] to understand what is at stake here ”, he warns.
