Post-Brexit Dover lorry queues are now so bad a charity specialising in earthquakes aid and helping war refugees has been drafted in to care for suffering drivers.
RE:ACT Disaster Response has agreed a £180,000 six-month contract with Kent County Council to ease stuck truckers’ nightmare waits to board ferries and Eurotunnel shuttles.
The charity was brought in as the council warned pandemic lockdowns had masked the true severity of hold-ups caused by Brexit – with up to 50 days of gridlock now expected every year on motorways leading to Dover.
It means truckers stuck for hours on the M20 and M2 without access to toilets, food or drink.
At Easter one angry driver – Vittorio Gismondi, of Staines, Surrey – tweeted Transport Secretary Grant Shapps saying: “No loos, nothing. They don’t provide you with food or water. Drivers here are considered like animals. What about human rights?”
The council said it had a “duty to provide humanitarian assistance to those in need under certain circumstances”.
On its website the charity says it “specialises in complex emergencies and crises, deploying highly trained RE:ACT Response Teams in the field”.
They are now at work in Eastern Europe amid the Ukraine refugee crisis.
The charity was set up by in 2015 by General Sir Nick Parker, former Commander of British Land Forces, in the aftermath of a Nepal earthquake where army veterans used their military expertise to help rescue victims.
RE:ACT also came to the aid of hurricane victims in Mozambique and the Bahamas. A spokesman said it would provide aid to vehicles “in the rare times traffic is held so long the occupants need additional food and water”.
But a Road Hauliers Association spokesman said: “How will this work? We have seen lengthy queues but traffic has continued to move, albeit very slowly. It can be dangerous if the charity intends to approach drivers in their cabs.
“For this reason, it isn’t possible to even erect temporary toilets on the hard shoulder.”
A Kent County Council spokesperson said: “Kent is a key gateway to Europe and a county with many tourist attractions so our roads can get very busy.
“As a responsible local authority and key member of the Kent Resilience Forum (KRF) we have long had plans in place for delivering aid to drivers caught in significant disruption, where it is safe and practical to do so.
“To do this we routinely work with organisations experienced at working in emergency situations, and on live motorways, including South East 4x4, British Red Cross, Kent Search and Rescue and the Coastguard – and most recently RE:ACT.”
