Waste containers in a Tunisian port: convictions have fallen

Mound of rubbish in Sfax.

© Lilia Blaise/RFI

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It was a case that caused a stir in Tunisia in 2020. And anger was great in Tunisia following the discovery, in the port of Sousse, of 282 containers containing waste from Italy.

The first convictions fell in this case.

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With our correspondent in Tunis,

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The anger had been great in Tunisia following the discovery, in the port of Sousse, of 282 containers containing waste from Italy. 

That was in 2020. Since then, some of the waste has been sent back to Italy. 

The Minister of the Environment at the time, Mustapha Aroui, has just been sentenced to three years in prison at first instance.

At the material time, he had been removed from his post and arrested. 

With him, five other people were sentenced, including former government officials and the owner of the Tunisian waste recycling company who was sentenced to fifteen years in prison in absentia, this one being on the run. 

Discord's containers - part of a huge contract worth over five million euros - contained waste that was found to be non-recyclable.

Based on toxic plastic and household and hospital waste, they had provoked the ire of Tunisian civil society, which had organized several demonstrations to demand that the shipments in question be returned to the sender.

Some environmental NGOs then insisted on supervising the departure of the waste to Italy.

1900 tons of waste had then remained on Tunisian territory.

A dismissal made difficult by the absence of a Tunisian ambassador to Italy. 

A case that has highlighted the phenomenon of sending waste from northern countries to southern countries which often already struggle - as is the case of Tunisia - to treat their own waste. 

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• Tunisia

• Italy