FLASH
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The clash between the Ministry of Environment and the Albanian government raises questions about how toxic waste moves in Albania. If the Kurum company lies, this is easily resolved by the Durrës Prosecutor's Office. It is enough to verify the documentation, interrogate witnesses, and the perpetrators are brought to justice...
At the end of September, two ships loaded with 816 tons of hazardous waste are expected to dock in Durrës, but so far it is still unclear who the containers that left Durrës for Thailand at the beginning of July belong to.
In a reaction to Shqiptarja.com from the Ministry of Environment and Tourism, it is said that the cargo originates from the companies that operate near the metallurgical plant in Elbasan, hinting that the bill belongs to the Kurum company.
"Volumes of goods which are suspected to contain waste from the technological process carried out by international companies operating near the metallurgical complex in Elbasan, have been loaded into container units near the Rifuxhio Goods Terminal in Durrës, which is operated by the German concessionaire company EMS" , it is said in this reaction.
A similar explanation was given earlier to Bloomberg. But this time, the government has clarified that "the Ministry of Tourism and Environment has not given any authorization and as a result the company has not presented data on the destination of the load".
But the Kurum company has denied that it has sent any cargo of hazardous waste to Thailand. The company's response categorically denied the government's version of the matter.
"Kurum International has never exported hazardous waste, so even in this case this cargo in question was not exported by Kurum International. This fact is easily verifiable by the relevant institutions, the General Directorate of Customs and Albanian ports," the statement says.
The company reminds the ministry that when it needs to export materials, it applies for permits, which are verifiable in Albanian institutions.
The clash between the Ministry of Environment and the Albanian government raises questions about how toxic waste moves in Albania.
If the Kurum company lies, this is easily resolved by the Durrës Prosecutor's Office. It is enough to verify the documentation, interrogate the witnesses, and the perpetrators are brought to justice together with the officials who are in abuse of office.
But if Kurum is right, the story gets complicated. In this case, Albania turns out to have been transformed into the dumping ground for hundreds of tons of hazardous waste, which enter Albania from other countries and leave without being checked by anyone.
In this line was also the reaction of the Customs for the second cargo blocked in China, the one with 100 other containers with hazardous waste, also those started from Durrës. According to the General Directorate of Customs, this second shipment originated in Kosovo and was sent by a private company.
"The case cited by the media is not an export from Albania but an international transit of the zinc concentrate product from Kosovo. So, the product is zinc concentrate originating from Kosovo with the sending/exporting company Apelbaum shpk" says the customs response.
The version given by the customs about the cargo blocked in China is the same as the one hinted at by the Kurum company, that the cargo is trafficked from the port of Durrës without being checked.
The same version seems to be supported by Jim Puckett, Executive Director of Basel Action Network, who spoke to Syri Tv about the toxic waste scandal.
Puckett's suspicions are that Albania is a transit point used by other European countries to launch large quantities of hazardous waste cargo.
"These exporters leave from the Port of Durrës, I suspect that there are many other wastes involved. Albania is used as a hub for waste from Europe," said Puckett.
The Basel network urgently requests that the waste stopped in Singapore be tested. In this way, there would be concrete evidence for the existence of dangerous substances.
Regarding the case, it has been announced that the Durrës prosecutor's office has started investigations in cooperation with OLAF, the European Union Anti-Fraud Office. So far SPAK has not been involved in investigations, which means that the officials being investigated are of a low level./ Lapsi.al
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