A fire at the border between the UAE and Saudi Arabia late on Wednesday night has spelt a weekend of chaos for the heavy truck drivers wishing to pass.
The blaze broke out in the cargo of one vehicle and quickly spread to a further seven in the queue, completely engulfing them. Nobody was injured in the fire, but the tailback, already 25km long, was made much worse as the Al Bat’ha checkpoint was closed until the following day.
Due to the high temperatures over the weekend, the UAE’s Red Crescent were on hand to distribute water and aid to the stranded drivers.
The misery was compounded by the complex Saudi immigration rules, which were introduced last year. Every driver is required to be fingerprinted on every journey, in addition to other checks.
