The holiday trip to Greece has been allowed since Monday, June 15, but it currently means getting trapped in a kilometer-long queue at the border for thousands of travellers. Even before the opening of the border, the Bulgarian authorities warned of an expected sharp increase in traffic and tension at the Bulgarian-Greek border checkpoints, but the reality exceeded even the worst of expectations.

Listeners sought help from the Bulgarian National Radio in confirmation of the fact that the public broadcaster enjoys the highest public trust in this country. Tensions escalate at the Kulata border crossing. Trucks and cars have been waiting to pass since last night. According to our correspondent Kati Trencheva, moving to the border is "explosively slow". The queue of waiting trucks has reached 15 kilometers in the direction of Greece. Hundreds of cars and thousands of tourists travelling to Bulgaria’s southern neighbour are blocked in the traffic jam. According to those waiting, the tension is great. Among them is the Nikolaev family, who are waiting with their two children from 3.30 am this morning:

"People are angry because the queues are scary," says Ms. Nikolaeva. “They are divided into two. We had no idea that the situation was so nightmarish. When we approached, it became clear that there was only one counter working on the Greek side. From the Bulgarian side, there are three counters for cars and one for trucks and buses. Processing on the Greek side is terribly slow, because they check everything. There is order on our part, but the waiting is long, and once you enter the queue, there is no way out. We called the Foreign Ministry at dawn and asked them to take action."

On Monday shortly before noon, Greece opened its land border only for Bulgaria. Thus, the seven-day quarantine for entering the country was lifted. By the end of the day, things had returned to normal, at least for tourists heading to the Aegean coast, except for the Serbian citizens who were returned. Yesterday it became clear that Serbian citizens could also go on vacation, but under strict control. Greek health authorities perform coronavirus tests on almost every tourist. Late last night, it became clear that Bulgaria’s southern neighbor had introduced very strict control and checks of all those entering the country, whether from EU member states or third countries. The BNR has received official confirmation of the deepening problem from the Bulgarian authorities, as well.

"The traffic at the Kulata-Promachonas border checkpoint is extremely intense," says Lora Lyubenova from Bulgaria’s Border Police. “Ten Bulgarian employees, at nine counters and on one mobile counter, are working to handle the traffic in both directions. On the Greek side, there are a total of three employees. This significantly reduces the capacity of the border crossing. There is an additional delay in the entry of Serbian citizens into Greece who are third-country nationals. Every Serbian citizen needs to declare orally to the Greek police officer his or her address of residence during their stay in Greece and a telephone number. Most of them are being tested for Covid-19. What we would advise Bulgarian citizens is to use the Ilinden border checkpoint and the other checkpoints on the Bulgarian-Greek border.”

The official reaction of the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry is also expected.

English Rossitsa Petcova