ROME: Italy is to take back hundreds of containers of mislabeled household and hospital waste that was sent to Tunisia last year and is being stored at the port of Sousse. An agreement was reached following a meeting between Vincenzo De Luca, governor of the region of Campania, and Tunisia’s Ambassador to Italy Moez Sinaoui. Campania will be in charge of the transfer of the
ROME: Tunisian Environment Minister Mustapha Laroui has been arrested in connection with a scandal involving the shipment of hundreds of containers full of mislabeled household and hospital waste from Italy to Tunisia.
Senior officials of the ministry, Tunisian Customs and the Waste Management Agency were also arrested in the same case. The suspects will be questioned by prosecutors in Sousse.
According to Italian news agency ANSA, the containers were declared by the Tunisian company importing them to contain scrap plastic left over from manufacturing processes, which the firm said it would recycle.
However, those containers were discovered to be holding tons of household and hospital refuse, the import of which is banned by Tunisia, raising speculation that they form part of an illicit trade in waste products.