London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Friday, Sep 19, 2025

Turkish lorry driver makes the most out of being stuck on the M20

Turkish lorry driver makes the most out of being stuck on the M20

European lorry drivers have set up meals and decorations outside their vehicles amid fears they may have to spend the festive period separated from their families in the UK.

More than 40 countries, including France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, Canada, Poland, Spain, Sweden and Russia, have temporarily closed their borders to the UK after Boris Johnson spoke about a new, more contagious, strain of the virus on Saturday.

The European Commission has since advised all member states, bar Greece and Cyprus, who have not enacted travel bans, to reopen their borders to the UK after lorries were left lining the motorways in Dover this week.

EU nations do not have to follow the advice, with Germany already banning travel from the UK until January, and Ireland extending its restrictions until December 31.

Today one Turkish long-haul truck driver was photographed setting up a meal at a Kent stop off point along the M20. His pop-up table contained sausages, honey, garlic, flatbread and cheese.

Another cooked food from the back of his vehicle, while a group of Romanian drivers could also be seen dishing out vodka as they gathered around a small white Christmas tree, decorated with coke cans.


France has currently closed its borders to the UK


Drivers fear they will be stuck in the UK over Christmas


The borders closed amid fears of a new strain of Covid


It is thought around 1,500 lorries are currently queued in and around Dover waiting to cross the Channel.

One lorry driver told the BBC’s Today Programme: ‘I feel bad, really bad, terrible in fact. We known nothing, we don’t know if we can get home to see our families for Christmas.’

Discussing plans for drivers to be tested before they go back to the mainland, he added: ‘It will be good, but maybe in Dover there are 1,000 to 1,500 lorries. If they implement testing here then maybe it will be a good idea, but they need to start now to get to Christmas Eve.

‘There is no words to describe this. I came on Sunday and on Sunday they decided to close it. If I knew that one day before, I would never have come here.’


A Polish driver pours drinks for colleagues as they wait on the motorway


One driver described being like ‘Santa Claus, with no reindeer’


Some drivers put out a small white Christmas tree decorated with drinks cans


A Portuguese driver was seen cleaning the cab of his freight lorry


Trucker Elvis Abdulcair, 43, told the Mail Online he had a lorry full of Christmas gifts to be delivered from England to Romania. He said he felt like ‘Santa Claus with no reindeers’ due to the travel ban.

He went on: ‘It is very bad because all these people will not have their cards and presents from their family in time for Christmas. The French government is s***. They have ruined it for everyone. And for what?

‘I have been here two days now and don’t know how much longer it will go on for. I just want to go home.’

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
DeepSeek Claims R1 Model Trained for only $294,000, Sparking Global Debate Over China’s AI Capabilities
SoftBank Vision Fund to Cut Nearly Twenty Percent of Staff in Bold AI Strategy Shift
Intel’s Next-Gen Manufacturing Gets a Lifeline from Nvidia’s Strategic $5B Deal
Erika Kirk Elected CEO of Turning Point USA After Husband Charlie Kirk’s Assassination
Massive Strikes in France Pressure Macron and New PM on Austerity Proposals
Trump Seeks Supreme Court Permission to Remove Fed Governor Lisa Cook
Hillary Clinton’s Reckless Rhetoric Fuels Division After Charlie Kirk’s Assassination
NASDAQ Rises to Record as Intel Soars More Than 20%, Nvidia Gains 3%
Nvidia’s $5 Billion Bet on Intel Reshapes AI Hardware Landscape
Trump and Starmer Clash Over UK Recognition of Palestinian State Amid State Visit
Trump’s Quip on Biden and Google Lawsuit Revives Debate Over Antitrust Legacy
Macron and his wife to provide 'scientific photographic evidence' that she is a real woman
US Tech Giants Pledge Billions to UK AI Infrastructure Following Starmer's Call
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
DeepMind and OpenAI Achieve Gold at ‘Coding Olympics’ in AI Milestone
SEC Allows Public Companies to Block Investors from Class-Action Lawsuits
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Federal Reserve Cuts Rates by Quarter Point and Signals More to Come
Effective and Impressive Generation Z Protest: Images from the Riots in Nepal
European manufacturers against ban on polluting cars: "The industry may collapse"
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Trump: Cancel quarterly company reports and settle for reporting once every six months
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
US Launches New Pilot Program to Accelerate eVTOL Air Taxi Deployment
Christian Brueckner Released from German Prison after Serving Unrelated Sentence
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Hong Kong Industry Group Calls for HK$20 Billion Support Fund to Ease Property Market Stress
Joe Biden’s Post-Presidency Speaking Fees Face Weak Demand amid Corporate Reluctance
Charlie Kirk's murder will break the left's hateful cancel tactics
Kash Patel erupts at ‘buffoon’ Sen. Adam Schiff over Russiagate: ‘You are the biggest fraud’
Homeland Security says Emmy speech ‘fanning the flames of hatred’ after Einbinder’s ‘F— ICE’ remark
Charlie Kirk’s Alleged Assassin Tyler Robinson Faces Death Penalty as Charges Formally Announced
Actor, director, environmentalist Robert Redford dies at 89
The conservative right spreads westward: a huge achievement for 'Alternative for Germany' in local elections
JD Vance Says There Is “No Unity” with Those Who Celebrate Charlie Kirk’s Killing, and he is right!
Trump sues the 'New York Times' for an astronomical sum of 15 billion dollars
Florida Hospital Welcomes Its Largest-Ever Baby: Annan, Nearly Fourteen Pounds at Birth
U.S. and Britain Poised to Finalize Over $10 Billion in High-Tech, Nuclear and Defense Deals During Trump State Visit
China Finds Nvidia Violated Antitrust Laws in Mellanox Deal, Deepens Trade Tensions with US
US Air Force Begins Modifications on Qatar-Donated Jet Amid Plans to Use It as Air Force One
Pope Leo Warns of Societal Crisis Over Mega-CEO Pay, Citing Tesla’s Proposed Trillion-Dollar Package
Poland Green-Lights NATO Deployment in Response to Major Russian Drone Incursion
Elon Musk Retakes Lead as World’s Richest After Brief Ellison Surge
U.S. and China Agree on Framework to Shift TikTok to American Ownership
London Daily Podcast: London Massive Pro Democracy Rally, Musk Support, UK Economic Data and Premier League Results Mark Eventful Weekend
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Le Pen Tightens the Pressure on Macron as France Edges Toward Political Breakdown
Musk calls for new UK government at huge pro-democracy rally in London, but Britons have been brainwashed to obey instead of fighting for their human rights
Elon Musk responds to post calling for the murder of Erika Kirk, widow of Charlie Kirk: 'Either we fight back or they will kill us'
×