Toxic waste in the Port of Durrës/ Muçollari: The Rama government is silent and manipulates the customs codes

2024-08-28 12:12:00, Politikë CNA

Toxic waste in the Port of Durrës/ Muçollari: The Rama government is

Grigels Muçollari

The member of the Presidency of the DP, Grigels Muçollari, denounced today that the issue of international traffic of toxic substances in the Port of Durrës is a scandal. According to him, the Rama government is silent and manipulates the customs codes of dangerous substances for dirty interests.

"The suspicions are reasonable and according to data from well-informed sources, this traffic has happened often.
We have a direct question for the responsible institutions: Did 550 containers with similar cargo leave this port in January of this year?", said Muçollari.

Full statement:

On July 4, here at the Port of Durrës, at the eastern quay, over 100 containers of dangerous substances, suspected of being toxic according to the Basel Network, were loaded and set off on two ships towards Thailand.

After alerting the agencies and countries, there were protests in Thailand, and the international reaction caused the ships to be turned back, and it is believed that next month, in September, they will come here again.

The first data about this scandal came out on August 12, from a report by the well-known Bloomberg agency.

Bloomberg has tried to get a response from the Albanian government, but has not succeeded. The Democratic Party has also officially requested information, but still silence despite the fact that the law forces institutions to provide information, even more so when requested by a deputy of the Republic of Albania. After several days of silence, a ministry spokesperson admitted that an investigation has been launched, and raised suspicions that private individuals did it, without the knowledge and authorization of the state.

Public pressure grew. The government and the prime minister remained silent.

A document was released to the public, showing that the Minister of Environment had licensed the private company to export hazardous waste. Under these conditions, 4 days ago, two ministers finally got together and signed a statement and issued another version. They, i.e. the ministers of Rama, admit that they are aware of this load, until they announced that they do not accept back the suspicious material, without the analysis being done.

Rama's ministers took care to attack the media and the opposition for the concern raised. A misery. What Albania are these ladies looking for? Do you want a place where after it is known that there is international traffic of hazardous waste, no one speaks?
The waste case has brought out a scary truth about the dirty work that the government does at the expense of the citizens and the country.

While it is expected that the ships will return with the facts and the truth, the behavior of the government so far, with several positions and variants, simply proves its involvement in this serious state crime.

Suspicions are reasonable, and according to data from well-informed sources, this traffic has occurred frequently.
We have a direct question for the responsible institutions: Did 550 containers with similar loads leave this port in January of this year?

In this illegality and secrecy, has it happened that such dangerous, toxic materials, such as zinc waste, have manipulated customs codes in cooperation with customs and have been declared as steel waste?
Where are these cargoes sent?
How many cases are there in recent years?

Citizens want transparency, they want the truth, they want justice./ CNA