- They neither have a place to park, nor eat.
Between 600 and 1,000 Murcian truck drivers are trapped in the United Kingdom after the announcement made on Sunday evening by France to suspend the traffic of goods and people from across the channel for at least 48 hours, after the confirmation in Great Britain of a new, highly contagious variant of the coronavirus.
The information was published by the Regional Federation of Organizations and Transport Companies of Murcia (FROET), which has said that a large number of lorries bound for the port of Dover and the Eurotunnel are at a standstill with access to both terminals closed to traffic due to the restrictions imposed by France.
The general secretary of the FROET, Manuel Pérezcarro, has affirmed that “the collapse of traffic in Kent, bound for both for the ferries and for the Eurotunnel, is absolutely beyond belief,” according to sources from the Federation in a statement this morning .
“We do not know what drivers who have been trapped can do, because they neither have a place to park, nor do they have a place to eat “, so “we could be looking at a real disaster,” he warned.
He has asked that “the British authorities show some common sense” to avoid that “our drivers are trapped for 48 hours, in conditions that are not acceptable, particularly in the week leading up to Christmas.”
Pérezcarro explained that the goods that are currently being transported to the United Kingdom come from the Region of Murcia and the Mediterranean Arc, but it is the return journey that is the problem “very serious, not only for Murcian drivers, but for many other carriers that are in the United Kingdom in the same circumstances”.
Froet, through the Spanish Confederation of Goods Transport (CETM), is in communication with the world organization for road transport (IRU) in order that they can negotiate the exit of trapped drivers.
“We are trying to influence the different agencies and organisations to help unblock this situation so that our drivers can be released,” said Pérezcarro, who said that he hopes “common sense prevails and at least the drivers who are trapped can get out, and return to their homes.”
