UN experts say victims of Trafigura’s toxic waste disposal await justice after 20 years News
Manouka, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
UN experts say victims of Trafigura’s toxic waste disposal await justice after 20 years

United Nations experts on Tuesday warned that twenty years after the Probo Koala toxic waste disaster in Côte d’Ivoire, thousands of victims still remain without justice, compensation, or effective remedies, highlighting what they call “environmental racism” and corporate impunity.

In August 2006, the M.V. Probo Koala, chartered by Trafigura, offloaded toxic waste at the Port of Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. The waste was illegally dumped at multiple sites across the city by a local operator, Compagnie Tommy. Residents living in and around those areas started to complain of a foul smell, reported various illnesses such as nausea, headaches, respiratory difficulties, eye, irritation, and skin burns.

The experts condemned the transfer of hazardous waste stating:

“This case is yet another example of hazardous waste being transferred to the developing world, resulting in widespread violations of human rights, in particular to the rights to life, health, healthy environment, and effective remedy, among others, and flagrant environmental racism.”

Findings also revealed that Trafigura executives, including the late CEO Claude Dauphin, avoided criminal liability through financial settlements, leaving victims either uncompensated or underpaid.

A Dutch court ruling in 2010 held Trafigura liable of environmental wrongs and the oil company was fined $1.3 million for illegally exporting waste from Amsterdam, but no charges were pursued for offences in Côte d’Ivoire.

Six years after the Dutch ruling, civil society organisations brought a case against Côte d’Ivoire before the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights. A 2023 judgment relied on the Bamako Convention to prohibit hazardous waste imports into Africa, recognizing that such wrongs constitute gross human rights violations. The African Court ordered for a range of reparations with the setting up of a compensation fund to be financed by Côte d’Ivoire and Trafigura to support victims.

This case infringed on the right to life, health, a clean environment, and effective remedies. Additionally, the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes also prohibits the export of toxic waste to countries lacking capacity for safe disposal. Trafigura’s actions which include exporting waste from Europe to West Africa violated the spirit of this Convention and exposed systemic weaknesses in enforcement actions.

Previously, a Swiss court had convicted the company along with its former executive and two co-defendants in relation to a graft case to obtain trade contracts.

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