Border queues ease, but drivers still suffering

Reports that the queue of trucks at the Saudi Arabian border is abating come as little comfort to those still stranded there.

For the last five days, the border has been effectively closed as border guards insist on a range of new procedures, which include a number of extra forms, finger printing of drivers and security clearance for each vehicle. As a result, thousands of drivers have been stuck in a jam thousands of trucks long, for days on end, in the searing heat, leading to severe fatigue and even mental breakdown among the drivers.

Hankus Shaduli, manager of Al Aweer General Land Transport, confirmed that his company had several drivers still waiting in the tailback. “Our trucks and drivers are experiencing too much delay at the Saudi Arabian border, due to these new regulations. In this scorching heat, even if they put the AC on, they will then face a shortage of fuel,” he said.

Pressure has been put on the KSA border authorities to speed the process up as much as possible, and it seems that the queue at the time of writing is ‘only’ 12km long. “They have cleared the worst of it and a whole group of vehicles have got through,” Shaduli said.

A doctor at Al Silwa hospital – the nearest on the UAE side of the remote border post – confirmed that a "number of patients" have been admitted from the queue over the last week, but there had been no more on Monday. Several ambulances had been put on standby to ferry exhausted drivers to the clinic.

A spokesperson for the UAE Red Crescent told The National newspaper that supplies of fruit and water were being handed out. “We will be here and continue this until the problem is finished,” said Sultan Al Shehi, a co-ordinator for the charity.