Truck drivers with goods still waiting for days at Merdare: We sleep on the street, no one cares

Nine months since the Kosovo government decided to allow the import of Serbian goods, after initially banning them, but only through the Merdare crossing, truck drivers are still waiting for several days at this crossing to deliver goods. As some of them told Kosovo Online, long waits and high temperatures are making their jobs more difficult, but they hope that the other crossings will be opened soon.

Lines of trucks stretching for several kilometers are a common sight on the other side of Merdare. Those transporting Serbian goods must undergo detailed inspections.

"It is pretty tough. I have been waiting since this morning. I don’t know when I will get through, maybe in the morning. It is also really hot, but it has to be done," said Mustafa, one of the truck drivers who had been parked for several hours.

Darko from North Macedonia waited 20 hours at the crossing, which he says significantly hampers his work.

"They say that when the Kosovo terminal is full, they don't let more than 100 trucks through. No way forward or back. Poor conditions, we sleep on the street and wait. We’ll see how it goes. After 11 or 12 o’clock, they let a few more trucks through, then close the border again. It is really difficult. The goods are waiting for delivery, and no one cares," Darko said.

"We have been waiting for ten hours, it is very hard. I don’t expect to get through before 12 hours have passed," Mehmet Alija said briefly.

His colleague Berisha said that the waiting time at the crossing varies from day to day and that the longest he had waited was 24 hours.

"It depends on the day. Sometimes we wait 10, sometimes 24 hours. It is not our fault, neither the drivers’ nor the companies’. It is a matter for the government," he emphasized.
He added that the other crossings should have been opened long ago, which would make transporting goods much easier.

"This should have been opened a long time ago. We are waiting, but nothing is happening," Berisha told us, adding that in addition to the long waits, they are also affected by high temperatures.

"I have been at the crossing since yesterday afternoon. I hope to cross tonight. I expect the other crossings to open soon," another driver told us.

Other crossings between Kosovo and Serbia for freight transport are still not open. Nine months ago, Kosovo's Prime Minister Albin Kurti said that the conditions for this were not yet in place, specifically that there were no scanners to inspect goods coming from Serbia, and announced that Kosovo would obtain them with help from the US and the EU.