Customs officers at the Turkish-Greek border crossing confiscated thousands of surgical masks destined for France on Thursday.
Searching a truck with Romanian license plates whose driver declared carrying bandages, officers found 767,000 surgical masks and disinfectants. The cargo did not have a special export permit. Officials launched an investigation into the incident.
The government has ordered exporters to receive a special permit for exporting masks and other protective gear earlier amid the COVID-19 outbreak that prompted concerns of a mask shortage. Turkey strives to keep its mask supplies sufficient while delivering free masks to every citizen to prevent the outbreak from spreading. France is among the countries hit by a shortage of protective masks amid the pandemic while Louis Vuitton had converted its workshops to make masks for French health care workers.
