Long queue at Bulgaria-Greece border as traffic restricted to Kulata only

Long queue of vehicles entering Greece was formed at Kulata border crossing on July 2. Although all travellers were prepared with the required QR code, they had to wait nearly an hour to cross the border.

According to a decision of the Greek authorities, Kulata-Promachonas was designated as the only point of entry into Greece at the border with Bulgaria. Yesterday, Bulgaria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that all land traffic between Bulgaria and Greece is restricted to Kulata-Promachonas border crossing as of July 1.

Greece has started re-opening to international traffic, but introduced a requirement for all foreign arrivals to complete compulsory passenger location forms as of July 1.

Travellers are required to complete the forms at least 48 hours before entering the country, providing detailed information on their point of departure, the duration of previous stays in other countries, and the address of their stay while in Greece.

The queue of vehicles on the Struma Motorway in front of Kulata border checkpointhas been extremely large today. For cars it is between 7 and 10 km long, and for lorries - a little more than 10 km. About midday, vehicles were let through the border at more frequent intervals, which allowed more vehicles to pass.

Police officers continue to regulate traffic. Vehicles are not allowed in the area of the border checkpoint to avoid accumulation of many in one place.

Entering Greece takes place after filling in a passenger location form and receiving a QR code, and it is required to be printed on paper to make it much easier to cross the border.

Today, cars were also allowed to pass through Makaza checkpoint, but no one can say for how long this would be possible.

All other checkpoints were closed yesterday. Only heavy goods vehicles and employees who go to work can pass through them.

In the early hours of the day, a queue of cars waiting to cross into Greece formed at Kulata border checkpoint. Drivers complained that they waited for more than an hour without moving a metre forward.

The travellers to Greece this morning were mostly from Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia. Everyone in the queue had followed the recommendation of the Greek border authorities and had printed QR codes. Some said they had trouble filling out the form.

"In the beginning there were a lot of ambiguities. If the street is not filled in correctly in English, the system would not allow you to go to the next column of filling in the form. We contacted the person from whom we rent the studio where we are going to stay. He told us that was the name of the street, but when we try to enter it in the form, it did not accept the name of the street, a woman explained.

"I filled out the form over the phone and had no problem," another waiting passenger said.

The requirement for a QR code and entry through only one border crossing is expected to remain in force until the end of August. Those who do not have a code upon entering Greece will be fined 500 euros.People who refuse to have a PCR test at the border will not be allowed in the country.

All 5 counters at the Bulgarian side of the border checkpoint "Kulata", at entry and exit, are working at full capacity.

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