The traders’ union in Northern Greece sent an open letter to the Greek Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis asking him to announce the strike of the international transporters in the country for illegal. The strike continues for a third day and has blocked a big part of the international load transport. Traders have to deal with great losses after some trucks blocked ports and some of the border stations in the country. The loading and unloading of trucks has blocked the Korinth and Igoumenitza ports. On Friday the Patras port was working on schedule but it closed today.

On Monday representatives of the strikers will meet the minister of transportation and until then the border station Kulata_Promahon and Evzoni-Doyran will remain closed. At Promahon there is a line of waiting trucks and cisterns, which became over 200. Near Evzoni the line is smaller – around 120 trucks. Busses and cars can pass without any problems. Tens of trucks have parked close to the border station Ilinden-Exohi without interfering with the traffic.

The demands of the Greek international transporters are two – the government to increase the control of foreign trucks, which cross Greece, because they believe that those truckers take their jobs. The second demand is the increase the security measures for illegal emigrants, who secretly climb onto the trucks in Igoumenitza and Patra ports, in order to go to Italy.

According to the Accossiation of International drivers, the Bulgarian trucks on the roads are more than the Greek ones and are moving around with no one controlling them and the Greek police only checks the Greek truck only when they violate the road laws.