Truckers still wait for three days at border

Al Ghuwaifat: Truckers stranded at the Saudi border still face a three-day wait, at the UAE border post.

At 10.30am on Thursday, Mumtaz Khan a trucker from Peshawar in Pakistan, joined the end of the 5,000 long truck queue. It will be at least three days before he is processed by Saudi customs officials. He left Dubai early on Thursday morning, on his way to Bahrain hauling a load of building materials and chemicals.

“It’s going to be three days waiting” he said. He has enough food and water to last that long. Anything else, he’ll have to find new supplies somewhere.

The delays have been going on for the last 10 days, with 200 trucks being processed every day, Hajj pilgrims crossing into Saudi appear to be receiving preferential treatment.

The queue of trucks was growing by 1Km an hour on Thursday lunch time, with a stream of trucks heading towards the border joining the line-up. The Red Crescent Authority have begun handing out juice, fruit and water to the truckers.