Ship suspected of carrying toxic waste docks in Albania, where it will be checked

A ship suspected of carrying a large amount of hazardous waste has docked at Albania’s main port, where prosecutors have ordered that its contents be tested

TIRANA, Albania -- A ship suspected of carrying a large amount of hazardous waste docked Friday at Albania’s main port, where prosecutors have ordered that its contents be tested.

The Turkish-flagged Moliva XA443A was kept at an anchorage about 1.5 kilometers (a mile) from the port of Durres, 33 kilometers (20 miles) west of the capital, until authorities found a spot out of the port to store the containers, port and prosecutor's office officials said.

The containers are expected to be sent to an agency in Porto Romano, 6 kilometers (4 miles) away.

Ten days ago, prosecutors ordered the containers to be seized and stored “at an environmentally and physically safe place” for monitoring.

The prosecutor's office has asked different institutions to conduct lab tests of the material in the containers.

The Seattle-based non-government organization Basel Action Network, or BAN, which focuses on environmental issues, flagged the ship to authorities in August after receiving information from a whistleblower that the containers on board are suspected to be carrying an estimated 2,100 tons of toxic dust from pollution control filters from the steel industry.

BAN said the containers left Durres on July 4 on two Maersk-chartered ships with the intended destination of Thailand. The group said it alerted several transit countries and collaborated with EARTH, a Thai environmental organization, and together raised the alarm about the shipment.

Thailand refused to accept the shipment, asking authorities in Singapore to stop it. The ships then docked at a Turkish port and the containers were loaded on the Turkish-flagged ship, which briefly stopped at the Italian port of Gioia Tauro before going to Albania, BAN said.

The customs documentation stated the containers contained iron oxide, according to local reports.

Albania's opposition accused the government in August of taking part in illegally trafficking hazardous material. Prime Minister Edi Rama said in Parliament in September that the shipment’s documents were verified and that iron oxide is “not considered as toxic waste in the European catalogs on which the environmental and customs procedure of our country is based.”

BAN has called on authorities to have a public opening and sampling of the containers to ensure transparency.

It is suspected the containers have toxic steel furnace dust collected from pollution control filters at an Albanian company and also illegally smuggled from Kosovo and Germany.

Ban said that while Albania is looking to join the European Union and the government has been eager to align its hazardous waste policy with that of the 27-nation bloc, it should ban “the export of hazardous wastes, household wastes, electronic wastes and plastic wastes to developing countries.”

There has been no immediate comment from Albania's Ministry of Tourism and Environment.

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