The statement said: “Some simple facts to clearly separate toxic news from the alleged danger of goods.”

“For several days, certain media sources have been alluding to “dangerous goods” that have come out of Albania, while political statements accuse the government of failing to act in connection with suspected cases of irregular transport to Thailand and China of a quantity of goods containing waste from technological processes in Albania and Kosovo, the press release reads.

The statement reads that, shortly after the whistleblower’s allegations last month, state structures immediately started an intensive exchange of information as well as a joint investigation with OLAF.

“Despite the fact that it would be appropriate to wait for the results of the investigations, in the face of the wickedness of those who have denigrated law enforcement agencies as the only instrument of survival in the media and political market, we need to inform public opinion with view to setting the boundary between the real world and that of fabrication and unstoppable accusations”.

“Freight goods, be them minerals, metals, scrap or by-products, as well as their production or processing areas, are often subject to special control by environmental, national and international customs entities, for the effect of waste related to the processing, and the polluting properties that these may contain”.

“It should be made clear that whether the Basel Convention on the Control of Cross-Border Movements of Hazardous Waste and its disposal, whether European or national regulatory acts for the export, transit and classification of waste, do not prohibit the transport and export of goods categorized as such, but only regulate the special protocols and procedures for their authorizations and control of exports”.

The press release underlines that it is precisely the environmental and customs regulatory acts that clearly determine what goods need special authorizations to be exported.

“In both cases of transport, from Elbasan to Thailand and from Kosovo to China, the goods declared as iron oxides/hydroxides or zinc concentrates were transported from the Port of Durres to European ports through international container lines of undoubted reputation and were not subject to controls in the EU countries where they stopped and were temporarily stored, they were allowed to continue their itinerary,” the statement said.

MoIE adds that, from the verifications of both the above logistical processes, as well as similar shipments in the past, goods classified as such have never been considered hazardous waste by customs and environmental bodies.

“The same goes from the point of view of port and maritime legislation: These goods do not fall into the categorizations provided for in the International Maritime Code for Hazardous Goods (IMDG Code) and therefore allegations about inaction of the port or maritime administration are unfounded,” the statement said.

“The facts show that such cargoes are regularly received from transit countries and from destination countries. “It turns out that 360 such container units have recently been accepted by the Chinese customs authorities in the last 10 months alone,” the statement said.

In any case, international conventions provide that the declaration of the cargo as a hazardous commodity or hazardous waste is the obligation of the exporter or importer, which must be identified through accompanying documentation of the goods by the manufacturer, the relevant analyses and authorisations. In this case, it is the investigations of law-enforcing bodies, which we fully support and encourage, which will clarify the responsibility in question” the statement states.

The Albanian environmental, port and customs authorities have operated for years in compliance with strict protocols regarding the authorizations for processing and transport of hazardous goods, in accordance with relevant international conventions. Moreover, this preparedness of our critical infrastructures has been verified and certified in several international inspections over the past years, classifying Albania as a safe country.

In these circumstances, MoIE adds, Albania cannot accept a priori the return of such shipments, much more so only on the basis of suspicions and speculations, without exhaustive analyses and reliable and verifiable legal evidence.

/r.e/sm/