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Dover Truck Backups Persist on Christmas Eve Despite Progress

  • Thousands of lorries line up for Covid-19 testing by military
  • Only a trickle made it across to Calais overnight, port says
Lorries remain queued on the M20 motorway leading to the Port of Dover on Dec. 24. 

Lorries remain queued on the M20 motorway leading to the Port of Dover on Dec. 24. 

Photographer: Justin Tallis/AFP/Getty Images

The U.K.’s main trucking gateway to the European Union remained backed up for a fifth day, despite progress moving traffic through the Port of Dover.

Thousands of truckers were stuck in logjams around Britain’s busiest ferry port on Christmas Eve, separated from families, many as far away as Poland. Some 4,000 trucks alone were crowded onto the site of Manston Airport, a disused airfield in Kent being used to conduct Covid-19 testing required before they can board ferries to Calais, France.