Malta’s reputation at stake in toxic waste export case, MP says

It is the government’s duty to clarify the Malta link in the case of a Dutch multinational oil trading company found guilty of illegally exporting toxic waste, according to Labour MP Owen Bonnici.

Dutch company Trafigura last week was fined €1 million in The Netherlands after its ship, the Probo Koala, passed through Amsterdam with its cargo in 2006.

Writing in The Times today, Dr Bonnici highlights the details of the Malta connection in the case and also points out that Trafigura has a company registered in Malta.

Trafigura tried to clean low-grade oil by mixing it with caustic soda on board the Probo Koala. The operation produced a toxic by-product but the Dutch authorities blocked the company from un-loading the waste for treatment in Amsterdam. Trafigura had des-cribed the waste as “harmless slops”.

Part of the waste was produced from the treatment of oil that had been transferred to the Probo Koala from two Maltese-registered ships, and one of the transhipments happened off Malta.

Probo Koala eventually off-loaded its toxic sludge in Ivory Coast, which allegedly led to the injury of thousands of people in a widely publicised scandal.

When contacted, Dr Bonnici insisted the government had a duty to explain the facts because the country’s reputation was at stake.

“I do not want my country to be associated with companies like this and if the government did not know what was happening off the Maltese coast it should say so. However, if it was aware the country is owed an explanation,” the MP said.

He criticised the fact that Malta had not yet ratified the Ban amendment to the Basle Convention – to which it is a signatory – that deals with the trans-boundary movement of toxic waste and its disposal. The amendment specifically banned the export of hazardous waste from OECD to non-OECD countries.

“Malta had championed the Law of the Seas in the UN and in that same spirit it should ratify the Ban amendment,” Dr Bonnici said, insisting the government had to give an explanation of its opposition at EU level to proposals intended to combat trans-frontier waste shipments and similar green crimes.

Around 1,000 Ivorians had sued Trafigura for the alleged damage caused to them by the toxic waste. Although the company denied the allegations in 2007, it reached an out-of-court settlement to the tune of $160 million with the government of Ivory Coast and agreed to pay another $50 million in 2009 to Ivorians who said they had been poisoned by the waste.

The latest case was the first time the company had faced criminal proceedings over its actions.

ksansone@timesofmalta.com