2023-12-14 14:32 update: 2023-12-17, 12:42
Photo PAP/Wojtek Jargiło
Lorry drivers are waiting more than 14 days to get into Ukraine at the Hrebenne border crossing in south-eastern Poland owing to protests by Polish road hauliers, police have said.
Queues of lorries now stretch for 65 kilometres, Malgorzata Pawlowska, from the local police in Tomaszow Lubelski, told PAP on Thursday.
Nearly 700 trucks are queuing and the waiting time for clearance is 350 hours, which amounts to more than two weeks.
Hauliers have been blocking the Polish-Ukrainian border since early November, only letting through a few lorries every hour while allowing cars, coaches and vehicles carrying humanitarian aid to pass unhindered.
The waiting time lengthened recently due to the fact that on Tuesday night the protestors at the border reduced the number of lorries allowed through from four to two per hour.
On Monday, Wojciech Sawa, the governor of the local municipality, decided to disband the demonstration in front of the Dorohusk crossing, thanks to which the waiting time there was reduced by nearly 140 hours.
The drivers, who started their protest on November 6, are demanding the reintroduction of commercial permits for Ukrainian companies carrying goods apart from humanitarian aid and military equipment, as well as the suspension of operating permits for Ukrainian haulage firms set up after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine.
They complain their business has been undercut by Ukrainian firms, which pay much less to their truckers and thus have lower operating costs but are competing with Polish firms. (PAP)
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