A £1 million aid convoy from Ireland destined for victims of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster is to be rerouted because of the French truckers' dispute. The trucks loaded with food and medicines are to be ferried today from Dublin to Wales and will then drive to the south-eastern English port of Harwich before heading for Holland, said a spokesman for the Chernobyl Children's Project (CCP), which was set up by the defeated presidential candidate, Ms Adi Roche.
The convoy was originally due to travel through the French port of Calais, which is now blocked to freight.
"The aid is urgently needed in hospitals, orphanages and evacuee villages in Belarus," said the spokesman for the CCP. The charity is also sending spare parts for the 100 ambulances it has already brought to Ukraine in previous convoys.
More than three million people were exposed to radiation by the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, including 700,000 people who volunteered to clear up the site but who were given insufficient protection against the high levels of radiation.