BAN: Hundreds of tons of industrial waste are expected to return to Durrës on October 27

2024-10-21 21:04:53, Aktualitet CNA

BAN: Hundreds of tons of industrial waste are expected to return to Durrës

The American non-governmental organization 'Basel Action Network' said on Monday that around 2,100 tons of industrial waste, suspected of containing harmful toxic substances, packed in 102 containers, are expected to return to their country of origin in Albania on October 27 via the Italian port of Gioia Tauro, having sailed to Singapore on their way to Thailand.

The network points out that the planned return could mark the end of months of dramatic intrigue after the group, which received a tip from a whistleblower, warned Albania, several transit countries and Thailand of a massive shipment of what is believed to be a toxic substance from metallurgical chimney ash.

Following the warning, the release said, the Thai government refused the import and the BAN group subsequently received assurances from shipping lines, including Danish company Maersk and Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), that they would ensure the safe return of the containers to the port of Durrës in Albania.

" We call on Albania to open the containers publicly and in the presence of independent groups like BAN and share the samples that can be analyzed in parallel in different laboratories ", said the executive director of the BAN group, Jim Puckett. Only open and transparent testing of the contents will provide public confidence in the results and nature of these shipments bound for Thailand and the damage they may have caused both while in Durrës and if they had reached to the target country in Thailand ".

Currently, all the containers are in the small port of Asyaport in Turkey, awaiting the arrival of the Turkish container ship Burak Bayraktar, which is expected to transport all 102 containers in question via the port of Gioia Tauro in Italy to Durres.

The containers were transported in July from Albania to Trieste, Italy, where they were loaded onto two Maersk chartered ships. As the two ships sailed towards Southeast Asia, the BAN group and its partners raised the alarm and worked tirelessly to stop the ships from transiting countries and to be rejected by Thailand.

Along the way, both ships "disappeared" from radars. Maersku finally agreed to return the containers to Durrës, after they arrived in Singapore.

According to the Basel Convention, the UN treaty that regulates trade in hazardous waste and other waste, the transport of hazardous waste without the approval of the exporting country (in this case Albania), transit countries or the intended importing country (in this case Thailand) practices illegal waste trafficking. In the announcement of BAN, it is stated that Albania has never been informed about the export by the exporter, the transit countries have not been informed and Thailand has also not received any notification.

The group has expressed its willingness to stay in Durrës to support the Albanian government in controlling and handling the containers.

" It is important that this issue is not swept under the rug ," Mr. Puckett said. " We are concerned about the improper handling of this waste in the port of Durrës, in the past, now and in the future. How such waste was deposited without protection in the port and found on ships bound for Thailand and China without notification right?... We need a full investigation and a strategy for the management of such waste immediately ," he said.

There was no immediate reaction from the Albanian government, but in August, the two ministers said in a joint statement that "Albania cannot accept a priori the return of such cargoes only on the basis of suspicions and speculations, without carrying out exhaustive analyzes ..."./ VOA