The Prime Minister fails to clarify the questions on the export of hazardous waste

In early August, the Basel Action Network, an environmental organization based in the United States, raised the alarm that 100 containers of hazardous waste, which comes from the ash of electric metallurgical chimneys, had been loaded in July at the Port of Durrës bound for Thailand .

But the Prime Minister said that there was no factual analysis or evidence for the claims raised by BAN, while removing the responsibility of the law enforcement bodies in case the suspicions were proved to be true.

"In every statement and in every document presented by private entities, as part of the export procedures, it is very clear that the export of the goods in question is not the export of hazardous waste", said Rama when called to urgent interpellation by the opposition.

He further claimed that "the Albanian authorities have not approved, in this case, any specific authorization for the export of hazardous waste for the suspected cargo".

According to Rama, the responsibility to declare the cargo as dangerous goods is the exclusive obligation of the exporter or the importer and that it will be the investigations that will show if there was "fraud" by the companies involved in the process.

The Prime Minister read passages of the law in force on "Integrated Waste Management" that foresee the methods of recovery, disposal, or transportation of hazardous waste, but he was not able to answer if this waste is produced in Albania, how much is produced, where it goes, are they processed or not, etc..

Rama also did not answer the questions raised by the opposition such as; "to whom do the hazardous wastes belong, how were they created or arrived in Albania, how were they treated, what actions, controls or supervisory acts did the institutions undertake, how were they allowed to be exported without the relevant permits from the Port of Durrës, etc.."

On the other hand, he brought data showing a continuous export of waste from Albania to other countries.

"360 such container units have been accepted by the customs authorities of Asian countries in the last 10 months," he said, adding that Spain, France, Belgium, Israel and Turkey had also accepted similar cargoes in the last 5 years.

"It is worth noting that one of these companies, currently part of this case that is being investigated in cooperation with the European Anti-Fraud Agency, has exported such cargoes to Spain and Turkey," he claimed.

The head of the democratic parliamentary group, Gazment Bardhi, referring to the statements of this organization, said that there are doubts that the Port of Durrës has been used before for illegal export of toxic waste.

According to him, the negligence of the governing bodies in the supervision of the companies involved in this activity has harmed national security and the violation of international conventions.

The first BAN alert was about a giant container ship of 175 thousand tons of the 'Maersk' line which disappeared at the end of July from the radars near Cape Toën in South Africa, after a signal made by it to the local authorities.

Based on information provided by a whistleblower, Basel Action Network believes that the ship 'Maersk Campton' and a second container ship of the same line, 'Maersk Candor', loaded at the port of Durrës in early July around 100 containers of hazardous waste, which comes from electric metallurgical furnace ash (EAFD) bound for Thailand.

The port authorities have blocked the containers from Albania in Singapore and they are expected to return to Durrës in the coming months. The prosecution has identified the company "Sokolaj" shpk, a mineral import-export company based in Durrës owned by citizen Gjovana Sokolaj as the exporter of the containers and the Turkish company "Kurum International" sh.a as the source of these products. Reporter.al