The families missing their stranded lorry driver fathers this Christmas: Romanian, Hungarian and Slovenian truckers tell of heartbreak at being split from loved ones while facing a lonely December 25 in their cab

Lorry drivers stranded in Kent for the past three days have told MailOnline of their heartache today at missing out on Christmas Day with their families amid the ongoing border chaos.

Thousands of drivers from countries including Hungary, Slovenia and Romania are likely to spend Christmas stuck in the UK after the Government indicated queues outside Dover will not move for at least another 24 hours.

It comes as a group of Sikh volunteers tried to the raise the spirits of the stranded drivers with a delivery of 1,000 Domino's pizzas last night, while relief has also been provided by the Salvation Army and a local football club.

Lorry driver Doma Dumitru, 41, had been hoping to spend tomorrow with his wife Alina, 40, and their 12-year-old daughter Daria Maria back home at Oradea in north-west Romania. He has been stuck in Dover since Monday after France closed its border with Britain following the emergence of the new highly infectious strain of coronavirus.

Mr Dumitru said: 'Normally at Christmas time I'd be with my whole family, my wife, daughter, my mother, brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews but this year I'm going to be trapped here in England.

Andik Jozsef , 47, from Csokonyavisonta in Hungary is parked more than a mile from the front of the queue at Dover. He has told wife Bernadett, 46, son Daniel (right, together), 22, and daughter Kristof, 15 that he won't be home for Christmas

Ivo Ivic , 57, who is transporting chemicals used in building foam from Runcorn in Cheshire to Slovenia, had been looking forward to spending tomorrow with his grandsons Timotes, aged eight and two-year-old Lucian. He had planned a Christmas meal with wife Ankica , 56, son Jure, 37, and daughter Sama, 38 at home in Vrhnika, Slovenia

Lorry driver Doma Dumitru , 41, had been hoping to spend tomorrow with his wife Alina, 40, and their 12-year-old daughter Daria Maria (right, together) back home at Oradea in north-west Romania. He has been stuck in Dover since Monday after France closed its border with Britain following the emergence of the new highly infectious strain of coronavirus

'It's not good, not good at all but this is the perils of the job. I don't want to be here sleeping in my lorry for a fourth night but there isn't anything I can do. I miss my wife and daughter, I've spoken to them on the phone but it isn't the same.

'There's no way that I will reach Romania on Christmas Day, I've already warned them about that. They know that this can happen with the type of work I do but it's still very hard to be away from them at this time of year.'

Thousands of lorries were today still clogging the A20 route into Dover right up to the entrance of the Port.

France agreed to open the border again on Tuesday night but insisted that anyone travelling into the country must first take a lateral flow test which detects the new strain of Covid-19 and provides results in around 30 minutes, rather than the 24 hours required after a PCR test.

A testing site has been set up at Manston Airfield, 18 miles from Dover, but the 10,000 drivers who parked up in the town causing two-mile tailbacks and traffic gridlock had been unable to reach it.

NHS staff and army personnel were later dispatched to start testing 30 vehicles at a time at the Port of Dover but the process is proving to be slower than expected.

Andik Jozsef, 47, from Csokonyavisonta in Hungary is parked more than a mile from the front of the queue at Dover. He has told wife Bernadett, 46, son Daniel, 22 and daughter Kristof, 15 that he won't be home for Christmas.

Mr Jozsef, who is transporting steel from a factory in Milton Keynes in Buckinghamshire to Hungary, said: There is no chance that I will get to see my family, there are 6,000 vehicles still to be tested and it's Christmas Eve.

Experts warn self-administering rapid Covid tests increase unreliability or results

Lateral flow devices, or LFDs, have been touted as a way to get Britain back to normal faster because they are cheap and give results within 30 minutes.

They are the tests chosen by the UK to swab lorry drivers wanting to cross the Channel into France.

French officials had wanted lorry drivers to be swabbed with PCR tests.

By comparison, the gold standard PCR tests take two to three days to identify positive cases, leaving more time for someone who is infected to return to the community, potentially spreading the virus.

But concerns have been raised over lateral flow tests' accuracy amid fears they only pick up those that are most infectious while giving others a false sense of security - raising the risk that they accidentally spread the virus to others.

Liverpool launched a mass testing pilot to detect asymptomatic infections - thought to make up one third of all cases - using LFDs on November 6.

To evaluate LFDs effectiveness compared to PCRs, scientists looked at the results from 6,000 residents that took both tests.

Interim results from the study, released yesterday, found LFDs only detected two fifths of positive tests compared to PCRs.

And only found two thirds of those who had high viral loads - meaning many spreading the virus were still left to freely move through their community.

'The sensitivity of the LFD was less than expected at 40 per cent,' Professor Buchan admitted.

There are further issues over accuracy when a test is self-administered.

An University of Oxford study initially found the tests picked up 79 per cent of cases, rising to over 90 per cent of the most infectious.

However, accuracy fell from 79 per cent when used by experts to 58 per cent when carried out by ordinary people without any training.

One Polish lorry driver has told how he had to make the heartbreaking call to his pregnant wife and daughters telling them he was unlikely to make it home for Christmas, and would instead be spending it in his cab stuck on the A20 in Dover.

Wojtek Golawski is one of thousands of truckers stranded in Kent and facing disappointment over the festive season, with just 200 tests an hour being carried out on Wednesday.

There was then more confusion as it emerged that testing on Jubilee Way, the main route into the Port of Dover, was shut down last night before 10pm.

The Department for Transport insists the immediate priority has been to clear the main backlog of vehicles along that road, that testing would resume there today, and that a 24/7 operation was also in force at Manston Airport, where thousands are parked up, and on the M20 motorway.

A spokesman added that the absence of testers in Dover overnight would not prevent access to the port, while the number of drivers tested each hour on Thursday is expected to ramp up to 500 or 600, with officials looking to set up ten mobile testing units for truckers stuck in queues.

Police have finally started letting drivers into the Port of Dover to be tested for coronavirus and, if negative, they can begin their journeys home.

Around 6,000 lorries, 4,000 at Manston Airfield and 2,000 on the M20, are said to be waiting to cross the Channel. Lorries are also parked in and around Dover, in streets and laybys. Highways England has warned all drivers - including hauliers – to avoid travelling to Kent until further notice due to continued cross-channel disruption.

Grant Shapps last night said he was unsure at how long it would take to clear the backlog, but said he hoped it would be sorted 'by New Year'. Today he tweeted that ferry and Eurostar services between Dover and Calais would continue over Christmas to help ease the backlog.

He said: 'As testing in Kent continues (latest figures & outcomes soon) I've spoken to my French counterpart & we've agreed the UK/French border at Eurotunnel, Dover & Calais WILL remain open throughout Xmas in order to help hauliers & citizens return home as soon as possible.

'As well as ensuring ferries will now sail on Christmas & Boxing Day, we've also got great cooperation by French firemen working with NHS Test & Trace and our brilliant military in a big effort to clear the backlog created by the French border closure.'

Dover MP Natalie Elphicke also said testing was 'well underway', but warned it could 'take days' to clear the backlog.

In a tweet, the Conservative MP said: 'Lorries are now leaving from Dover. Will continue sailings on Christmas and Boxing Day to help with the backlog.

'Huge thanks to all ferry, military & emergency crews who are making this happen. Testing well underway, but will take days to clear.'

A driver checks his COVID-19 lateral flow test at the Port of Dover, Kent, where thousands are waiting to resume their journey across The Channel after the borders with France reopened

Members of the British army help travellers to use covid-19 self-testing kits close to the entrance to the Port of Dover

The difference in the testing efforts: Britain is asking lorry drivers to self-administer the Covid tests. But French firefighters are swabbing drivers themselves

The swab tests have to be administered by inserting a swab into person's nose. French officials are carrying the tests out themselves, but UK workers are giving the tests to drivers to self-administer

Meanwhile, lorry driver Wojtek, from Lukow in Poland, said he had travelled to Britain on Sunday with pallets full of clothes, which he delivered to a depot in Nottingham. Like thousands of other delivery drivers, the 34-year-old has been stuck in Kent since the weekend.

Huge shopping queues form as supermarkets airlift in European fruit and vegetables amid ports chaos

Huge queues formed this morning as supermarkets airlifted in fruit and vegetables in an attempt to avoid shortages of fresh produce caused by the chaos at Dover.

The British Retail Consortium has warned that there could be a lack of some fresh goods until the backlog of trucks is cleared, while the Food and Drink Federation is warning of 'significant disruption'.

Meanwhile, the Transport Secretary Grant Shapps suggested the border mayhem could last up to the New Year as the Army and NHS rush to test every driver in a queue of up to 6,000 lorries.

The requirement to test all drivers heading to Europe - a key condition of France agreeing to restart trade - is delaying the speed at which lorries can restock on the Continent before returning to Britain.

German airline Lufthansa yesterday flew in 80 tonnes of fresh fruit and vegetables into the UK for Tesco, Sainsbury's, the Co-op and Aldi as thousands of hauliers remained stranded at the Kent border.

The airlift, which included lettuce, cauliflower, broccoli, citrus fruits, and strawberries, came as Tesco began rationing several items and experts warned the border reopening was not soon enough to prevent shortages.

The Lufthansa airlift was commissioned by Venus, an Egyptian fruit supplier that is used by UK supermarkets. It landed at Doncaster Sheffield Airport just before 2pm yesterday, Lufthansa told MailOnline.

Food and Drink Federation CEO Ian Wright told The Grocer: 'Last night's news of an agreement to allow hauliers with a negative Covid test to enter France is very welcome progress.'

But he added: 'Even working extremely quickly and with Calais possibly shut for Christmas Day, it is clear it could take until the new year to return to normal operations. Lorries will take time to return to their normal pattern of collection and delivery.

'That means we are likely to see, locally, reduced on-shelf availability of some fresh vegetables and fruits, beginning next week. We will also see potential significant disruption to the flow of ingredients into the UK.'

MailOnline has contacted all the major supermarkets to ask if they had also put new restrictions in place.

Sainsbury's, M&S, Morrisons and Aldi all said no, while Waitrose said had been restricting customers to two packs of toilet roll and three bags of flour for 'a substantial period of time'. Lidl is yet to reply.

All supermarkets said they had plenty of stock.

Wojtek is parked a mile and a half from the front of the queue and so will almost certainly not make it back home in time to see his two girls aged three and five open their presents.

He said: 'It's a horrible situation and it shouldn't have got to this, I think it's France trying to flex their muscles before Brexit.

'But it means that I'm not going to make it home to my daughters and to my wife, who is seven months pregnant.

'I had to make a very tough phone call to her earlier this evening to say that the problems in England meant I would have to miss Christmas this year.

'She and the girls were very upset and so was I. It's going to be depressing celebrating it on my own in the same lorry cab I've spent the last two nights sleeping in.

'But this is what's happening and I have to accept it. Even if I make the ferry to France tomorrow, it's still a huge drive.

'Miracles do happen, especially at this time of year, but I think I'll be in England for a few more days at least.'

One driver at the front of the queue Catana Florian, who had transported 20 dogs and six cats rescued from the streets of Bucharest to new homes in Britain, was hoping to make it back to Romania to see his wife and seven-year-old daughter.

He had made drop offs in Kent, Peterborough, Norwich and Colchester but had got stuck in Dover when the French closed the border.

The 45-year-old was hoping to get on a Calais-bound ferry to make the 28-hour drive home to Craiova.

He said: 'I've made people's Christmases by delivering them a new family pet - now I'm hoping the British and French authorities can make mine.

'Myself and a colleague have been sleeping in the back of our van since Sunday and I'm now wearing old clothes again as I have no fresh ones.

'We've been waiting such a long time to go home and now at last it looks like we are going to making the ferry at last as long as we test negative for Covid.

'It's cold and wet and I just want to see my wife and little girl again and be there with them for the big day.

'As long as there's no more hold-ups we should make it, that would be the best gift of all.'

Filipe Mayo, a truck driver from Portugal who has been waiting to cross into Calais for four days, told BBC Radio Four's Today Programme: 'At the moment I'm stuck inside my truck.

'There are two lanes, one in the left and one in the right to the tunnel and shuttle.

'The right side where I am right now goes directly to Dover.

'They stop us right now, nothing Is happening. We are just waiting for the instructions of the police who sometimes knock the door of the truck and say look forward and wait.

'And that's it for basically the last five hours. We are waiting for the coronavirus tests so nobody really knows how much time it's going to take to get the test, so we are just waiting in the road.'

Today, Richard Burnett, head of the Road Haulage Association, said he sympathised with the hauliers, a small number of whom clashed with police this week after being stopped from heading to the continent, adding: 'It just feels like it's a lever the French have pulled specifically around the Brexit negotiations.'

He told the BBC: 'We understand that we don't want the virus to spread but I think we have to think practically about some of the reasons why this has happened.'

Wojtek Golawski, pictured, said he was going to have to spend the peak of the festive season in his lorry cab stuck on the A20 in Dover rather than with his family in Lukow in Poland

Police officers and lorry drivers congregate at the entrance to the Port of Dover last night as testing got underway

Trucker named John Christmas admits he's likely to spend festive season in a lay-by

Unlucky trucker John Christmas has admitted he will likely spend the festive season in his lorry parked in a lay-by.

The aptly-named Romanian driver will not make it home on Christmas Day as he cannot make it to Dover due to traffic problems.

He is currently parked at the side of Manston roundabout 18-miles from the port.

Unlucky trucker John Christmas has admitted he will likely spend the festive season in his lorry parked in a lay-by

Mr Christmas transports water from Dover to Birmingham but has been unable to get near the Port due to the traffic gridlock as thousands of other drivers try to reach France to continue home.

He told Kent Live: 'I will spend Christmas in my trailer, whether it's at the side of this road or in a car park in Birmingham, that's unavoidable now.

'I don't need a COVID test. I have been waiting for hours but they won't let me go.

'All I need to do is go to Dover to drop my truck and pick up another one, but I cannot go there.

'After that I will need to back to Birmingham and then back home to Romania.'

NHS staff were instead bussed to Dover where the initial plan was to have them testing drivers while going from lorry to lorry but after police officers were attacked by frustrated drivers desperate to go home, 30 vehicles at a time were instead processed into the port to be tested.

The truckers' struggles come as it emerged officials performed as few as 200 tests an hour in Kent, sparking fears the gridlock that has dominated the county all week, and seen 10,000 truckers stranded, could last for days.

Fights broke out between lorry drivers and police at Dover and Manston Airport as tensions boiled over while testing staff set up swabbing centres in a bid to get them across the Channel for Christmas.

But contractors have struggled to deliver the huge scale of testing ministers had hoped to see yesterday, with the military now in place to try and speed up efforts, which sources have described as a 'relentless operation'.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Emmanuel Macron had earlier agreed a deal to let lorry drivers into France with a negative 30-minute lateral flow coronavirus test, after two days of chaotic gridlock following the French president's fears over the new super-infectious strain of Covid-19 sweeping across Britain and other countries.

The Road Haulage Association said the chaos will probably last until Boxing Day with between 100 and 300 tests being carried out per hour at Manston and a total of more than 6,000 lorries to get through. Alongside Manston, tests have taken place at the Port of Dover itself.

Andrew Opie, director of food and sustainability at the British Retail Consortium, today warned the backlog could cause issues in the supply of fresh goods to Britain. He told the Telegraph: 'Until the backlog is cleared and supply chains return to normal, we anticipate issues with the availability of some fresh goods.'

A major flashpoint in Kent was at the entrance to the port, where drivers blocked the entrance in anger at not being allowed to cross the Channel without a negative coronavirus test from the UK Government.

To get that test - which is self-administered - they had to travel 18 miles to Manston, which is already full with 3,800 lorry drivers who also clashed with police today and broke out of the site in running battles with officers. Two men were led into a police van in handcuffs by officers earlier following a scuffle.

However, a further test site was yesterday being set up at the entrance to the Port of Dover, although the junction was blocked by vans and cars with some even parked in the wrong direction. Other centres were also being put in place at at Dreamland amusement park in Margate and on the M20 heading towards Folkestone.

The first testers arrived at Dover shortly before 3.30pm yesterday, as four police cars escorted nine vehicles driven by medics into a car park. Officers were seen speaking to three women wearing blue disposable face masks and hi-vis jackets with the NHS Test and Trace logo before they walked towards the port's passenger reception.

Dozens of truckers trying to reach their homes on the Continent tried to force their way past officers guarding the Port of Dover this morning. Hundreds left their cabs and walked along the A20 to the port entrance jeering and whistling, with some shouting in English: 'Open the border', 'We just want to go home' and 'F*** you, Boris!'

At one point several of them surged forwards towards a line of Kent Police officers who were forced to push them back as days of simmering anger at the chaotic situation amid the pandemic bubbled to the surface. Some drivers showed police apparently negative results, but an officer said a lot of them were 'fake test sheets'.

Tensions also boiled over at Manston Airport, where truckers whose lorries are being held staged a protest, broke down fences and blocked roads. Some 150 members of the Armed Forces and NHS staff are working to administer Covid-19 tests at the airport, which are handed to drivers in their cabs to be self-administered under supervision.

The result will then be communicated to the driver via text or email, identifying them via their numberplate. It wasn't until after 5pm that Kent Council leader Roger Gough said the first 20 trucks have entered the Eurotunnel to make the crossing.

Meanwhile, a blue van, a white van and a silver Ford Mondeo were the first three vehicles to seemingly get the all clear and be allowed to drive through the port at just before 6.30pm. These were then replaced by a further 12 vehicles shortly afterwards.