Abu Dhabi The flow of traffic into Saudi Arabia through the Al Ghuwaifat border is back to normal — ending a nightmare for truck drivers who were stuck in a 14km queue at one point.
"The traffic flow was restored last Saturday. Some new Saudi border administrative procedures caused the delay, especially staff holidays," Lieutenant-General Nasser Al Menhali, director-general at the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs, told Gulf News.
"The Immigration and Naturalisation Department has immediately offered support to the Saudis since the problem [came to light] in order to ease procedures and avoid any delay. The Saudis were cooperative and started implementing the new regulations that allow [for] a swift and easy search of the trucks and their drivers."
Al Menhali said that the Ministry of Interior wasted no time in sending a team to coordinate with Saudi officials and offered the truck drivers food, drinks and other essential items.
Busy all year round
Al Ghuwaifat is the main land border point between the UAE and other GCC countries. It is busy all year round. Statistics show that the number of passengers who used Al Ghuwaifat last year topped 3.48 million. Of these, 1.74 million were departures while 1.73 million were arrivals, in addition to 2.02 million vehicles.
