London, December 23 (QNA) - Hundreds of passport control staff at border points in UK on Friday started an eight-day strike demanding better pay, as part of the latest strikes of public sector workers across the country.

Travel movement was disrupted, as the strike coincides with the Christmas holiday during which Britons travel abroad. The strike also affected passenger traffic at air and sea ports in Birmingham, Cardiff, Glasgow, Gatwick, Heathrow, Manchester and New Haven.

The government hired more than a thousand civil servants who joined the army to carry out the tasks of passport control staff in an effort to mitigate the effects of the strike on the travel movement in the country.

Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union secretary general Mark Serwotka warned that the strike could continue for months if the government did not respond by entering into negotiations over a wage increase, adding that any anger from the strike should be directed at the government that ignored the union's demands.

The strike of passport control staff comes to put more pressure on Rishi Sunak government, which rejects the demands of public sector workers for a significant increase in salaries.

Britons are suffering from an unprecedented cost of living crisis for decades, due to the inflation rate that reached 10.7% in November, driven by higher food and energy prices in the wake of the Russian war in Ukraine.

Since the middle of December, UK has been witnessing a high wave of strikes by workers in several vital sectors in the country, such as nursing, railways, postal services, and other sectors, after disputes with the government and companies over wages. (QNA)