Demonstration in Tunisia to ask Italy to take back its waste. An environmental scandal against a background of corruption shakes the country. A total of 282 containers of Italian household waste were imported illegally last year. Senior customs officials were fired, as was the Minister of the Environment, imprisoned since the end of 2020. And despite legal proceedings, the 7,800 tonnes of rubbish bins still remain in Tunisia.
as reported from Tunis, Martin Bernard
“Ta tua merda”. The message is clear on the banner displayed in front of the Italian embassy. He asks Rome to return his rubbish that illegally arrived on the southern shore of the Mediterranean. Among the fifty protesters, Ali Souéri, a student, made the journey from Sousse: “We are angry, our country is not a dustbin!”
The 7,800 tonnes of waste are stored in this city, which is 150 km from the capital. Mejdi Ben Ghezala is the municipal councilor there and follows the procedures closely: “The Italian waste mafia chooses countries that do not have an ecological waste management system. According to the Basel Convention, this is a crime because waste should only be exported to countries that have the opportunity to treat waste in an environmentally friendly way. “
26 people are charged
Bäle and the Bamako Convention, the Izmir Protocol, European waste transfer regulations. So many texts that have driven the Italian authorities to force the exporting company to return its containers. At the moment without results. In Tunisia, 26 high-ranking officials are being prosecuted in this case for corruption and forgery of documents.
Log in hand came Latifa Sbaï to demand justice: “It is the Tunisian mafia that does this to raise a lot of money”. Recently, 600 other containers of waste destined for Tunisia were blocked by the Italian authorities.
► Read also: Italian waste exported to Tunisia: ten people arrested
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