Truckers blocked on border between Bulgaria and Turkey
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A column of waiting trucks wanting to cross the border between Bulgaria and Turkey, in the village of Kapitan Andreevo, Bulgaria, 25 March 2020. A record number of drivers and their trucks are trapped for nearly a week at the border between Bulgaria and Turkey in poor condition without food, water and sanitary possibilities such a running water and WC. The queue of trucks intending to enter Turkey reached up to 50 kilometers in the past two days because of the slow procedure of checks and medical exams due to the coronavirus Covid-19 pandemic.
The Bulgarian authorities are trying to accelerate to procedure but the maximum capacity reached until now is 1,500 trucks passing the checkpoint, Kapitan Andreevo, and everything is in the hands of the Turkish authorities on the other side of the border, an external for the EU.
Because of the almost humanitarian crisis on Bulgarian soil, one of the main routes between Western Europe and the Middle East, the Bulgarian Red Cross started to distribute bottles of mineral water and croissants to the trapped drivers. One of them told EPA-EFE that normally he makes the route from Western Europe to Turkey in four days but now the trip seems to last up to 10 days because of the limitations after the coronavirus Covid-19 outbreak.
