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Thread: Toxic Waste and Cote D'Ivoire. A case study in how the activities of UK multi-national companies continue to endanger the rights, health and environments of African peoples into the 21st century. #bizhumanrights #Trafigura 1/11
In 2006, a ship named the Probo Koala arrived in the port of Amsterdam. She had been chartered by #Trafigura Limited, a company based in London, a subsidiary of the multi-billion dollar company Trafigura Beheer BV. #bizhumanrights 2/11
In Amsterdam the vessel unloaded its cargo of "slops", a mixture of waste products that have built up in a ship, such as caustic soda, fuel and other chemicals. The mixture can be toxic. #bizhumanrights #Trafigura 3/11
The process of unloading the slops was chaotic. A Dutch court later heard that #Trafigura had tried to get rid of the waste on the cheap, and in 2010 ruled that Trafigura had criminally tried to conceal how toxic the mixture was. #bizhumanrights 4/11 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jul/23/trafigura-dutch-fine-waste-export
A foul stench was noticed at the docks. The unloading agents asked for more money, as the job was worse than what they'd anticipated. #Trafigura refused and pumped the slops back on board. They said they would unload it "at the next convenient opportunity" #bizhumanrights 5/11
The Probo Koala set sail with 500 tonnes of slops on board. One month later, she landed in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. In Amsterdam, #Trafigura were quoted $620,000 to unload the slops. In Abidjan, they paid just $17,000. #bizhumanrights 6/11 https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2016/04/trafigura-a-toxic-journey/
A local company, C. Tommy, was hired. 500m3 of slops were loaded onto their lorries. Instead of disposing it safely, Tommy drove around the city and dumped it across 17-18 sites. #bizhumanrights #Trafigura 7/11
Over the next days and weeks, thousands of people visited hospitals complaining of adverse health impacts. In total, there were more than 108,000 medical consultations from people complaining of flu-like symptoms and anxiety. #bizhumanrights #Trafigura 8/11
#Trafigura maintain that they did not foresee or authorise C. Tommy to dump the waste. Yet they have paid dearly for what took place. They were initially fined £100m by the Ivorian government, and their director and country manager were briefly jailed. #bizhumanrights 9/11
In 2010, a Dutch court convicted #Trafigura of illegally exporting the hazardous waste. They were fined a further £840,000, and an employee & the ship's captain were both given suspended sentences. #bizhumanrights 10/11 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-10735255
And in between this, Leigh Day represented 30,000 Ivorians in what was then the largest ever group action claim in the UK. The claim was settled for £30m in compensation for the victims. #bizhumanrights #Trafigura https://www.leighday.co.uk/International/Corporate-accountability/Environmental-damage/Ivory-Coast
