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Stranded in England, Truckers Spend Christmas in Their Cabs

Agence France-Presse

   RAMSGATE, ENGLAND - Aside from the occasional miniature tree and paper
   chains hung from cabs, there was little festive cheer for the thousands
   of truckers stuck on an old airfield in southeast England on Christmas
   Eve.

   Several thousand cargo trucks have been trapped for days around the
   southern English port of Dover since France closed borders with Britain
   in a bid to stop the spread of a new coronavirus strain.

   Army personnel were going from truck to truck, conducting rapid
   coronavirus tests that give results in 40 minutes as part of measures
   to try to start up travel again.

   Pawel, 34, a driver from Poland, had just been tested and said his plan
   was to go to Folkestone 42 kilometers (26 miles) away, take the
   Eurotunnel and go home to his family.

   "It's impossible," he told AFP of his three days at the Manston
   airfield, on the outskirts of Ramsgate, where many trucks have been
   parked while the travel crisis is sorted out.

   "I've no words to describe what we're feeling here. All of our families
   are waiting for us. Heartbreaking."

   He said drivers were furious with France for shutting their borders in
   response to the emergence of a new, potentially more contagious variant
   of the coronavirus.

   On his way back, he said, he will retaliate by not stopping there "for
   the food, for petrol, for anything."

   "Ninety percent of people here are also not going to stop in France,"
   he said.

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