The Durres Prosecutor's Office announced on Wednesday that it has launched investigations, in cooperation with the European Office against Economic Fraud (OLAF), on more than 800 tons of suspected hazardous waste, loaded in 100 containers that left the Port of Durres at the beginning of the month of July.
According to an official announcement, the investigation started on the basis of the materials referred by the General Directorate of Customs for the criminal offense “Smuggling of prohibited or restricted goods”, while the Durrës Police Directorate also referred another investigative material under suspicion for the criminal offense “Transportation of waste” and “Abuse of duty”, based on “information received from the media”.
The alert on the shipment of hazardous waste from Albania was issued by the Basel Action Network (BAN), an expert organization in environmental justice issues, which takes its name from the 1989 Basel Convention, which sets clear limits on trading of hazardous waste.
The cargo is said to have its origins in the waste created during technological processes from the activity of the Turkish Kurum Company in the area of the former metallurgical combine in Elbasan.
The suspicions are that the transport was carried out under forged documents as non-hazardous waste. They were unloaded at the Rifujo cargo terminal in the port of Durrës and then loaded into containers. The first stop was initially at the port of Trieste in Italy, where the containers were loaded onto other ships, bound for Thailand.
The alarm from the BAN organization followed numerous reactions and the Thai authorities announced that they refuse to unload the containers in their country, which are being transported aboard two ships of the international company Maersk. Most likely, according to various international announcements, the cargo will have to be returned to Albania, where the authorities have been reserved in their public information.
The Prosecution's investigations are expected to shed light on the entire chain of actions to hide the transport of these wastes, a process that according to the rules must be accompanied by strict procedures. The prosecutor's office announced that, in addition to Olaf, it is cooperating “with the Albanian law-enforcement institutions and international partners, to quickly and completely clarify all the circumstances of the event.”
