Greece allowed dozens of Serbian vehicles to cross into the country from the Promachonas border-crossing with Bulgaria on Monday, despite the border closure for Serbian citizens in effect since 6 o’ clock in the morning.
Hundreds of Serbs were trapped at the border as the decision was issued early Sunday evening.
Large queues of up to 10 km were formed overnight at the customs office in Promachonas, as hundreds of Serbs tried to cross into Greece before the closure.
Shortly before 7 a.m., Serbian drivers blocked the entrance to the customs office their vehicles, causing problems for citizens from other countries such as Bulgaria, Romania and Poland as well as Greeks coming from Germany who wanted to cross as well.
In order to deal with the problem and defuse the situation, it was decided that the borders would be opened for those visitors from Serbia who were trapped there.
According to state broadcaster ERT TV, a total of 105 Serbian vehicles crosses into Greece.
All drivers and passengers were tested for Covid-19 and are obliged to self-isolation until the results are out.
Greece decided to close the borders to Serbian citizens starting today, July 6 and until July 15, 2020, due to increase of coronavirus infections in the Balkan country.
The Serbian Foreign Minister described the Greek decision as “unpleasant and bad.”
Serbia and Greece do not have common borders, and Serbs need to cross Bulgaria or North Macedonia to reach the South.
PS Travelling in times of coronavirus is difficult and border closure decisions are often absurd and cause immense problems especially when they are not issued in time. Greece is a safe country but a master in issuing decisions late…
Although not travelling till 22nd July I filled out the passenger location form end of June someone has told me it shouldn’t be submitted until a maximum of 72 hours before departure if it has been does it have to be done again.
48 hrs is the recommended time to fill out the form. Any earlier is a waste of time. Your location in the previous 15 days is important.
Greece is a safe country because of its quick reactions to an ever changing set of circumstances and the co-operation of the majority of its citizens. Every country has the right to make those decisions for the protection of their people.
We have been right in this queue from 5:30 to 9:30, because of this. The last sentence of the article “Greece is a safe country but a master in issuing decisions late…” is really true, and especially in the last weeks the decisions are way too late, and confusing for tourists, even more for those who are not fluent in English. Even we from Burgas had to have a night stay near the border in order to be early enough at the customs, but it did not even help. How could Serbians react in time, when they need up to 12 hours from the northern part of the country, to even arrive there? This, and also the unneeded closure of Makaza will make turn many tourists away from Greece in future. Even we as fans of holidays here now consider in future not to go any more because of such nightmares. The real nightmare though will be fore areas like Kavala, Fanari, Thasslos, Limnos etc. where lots of cancellations have been and will be. Nobody from the East of Bulgaria or of Romania will go all the way to the West and then go all the way back to the East and spend vacation there, which means the double way.