LONDON/MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd December, 2020) A large group of truck drivers who have been stuck for up to four days in Dover after France closed its border with the UK on the English Channel clashed with police on Wednesday as services were resumed, the Sky news broadcaster reported.
Live footage aired by the broadcaster showed people pushing and shoving police officers trying to contain them.
Thousands of truck drivers were left stranded in Kent, southeast England, unable to cross the channel after France imposed a ban on arrivals from the UK following the emergence of a highly contagious new variant of the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2.
London and Paris finally reached a deal on Tuesday evening to allow entrance to France to lorry drivers and EU residents who test negative for COVID-19 within 72 hours to cross, but anyone testing positive will have to take another PCR test and, if still positive, stay in COVID-secured hotel accommodation and self-isolate.
The broadcaster also reported that a mobile COVID-19 testing station was being set up at the entrance to the Dover port to facilitate the process and end the blockade of the port's terminal by drivers.
UK Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick has said that clearing the freight truck backlog in Kent will take several days.
Last week, the UK identified a new variant of the coronavirus that is 70 percent more transmissible than other SARS-CoV-2 virus strains. After media reports, over 40 countries across the world shut their borders and halted travel to the United Kingdom.
