Environmental Justice groups call for its arrest and return to Europe
Seattle, USA, Bangkok, Thailand, Cape Town, South Africa. A large Maersk container ship, carrying an estimated 327 tonnes of what is believed to be hazardous waste containers scheduled to dock in Cape Town, South Africa, has disappeared following a warning to the South African government by the international watchdog group, the Basel Action Network (BAN). The ship, the MAERSK CAMPTON, the first of two such ships now carrying 100 containers of waste that originated in Albania to Thailand, was scheduled to dock in South Africa, but following the alert to South Africa, the ship’s Automatic Identification System (AIS) GPS beacon was switched off on 31July prior and it failed to make its scheduled August 1 Cape Town docking. South Africa reportedly searched diligently for the missing vessel in their waters many hours in vain and as of this release the ship remains at large.
“We can imagine no other reason for this behavior other than an effort by MAERSK, to avoid arrest or delays due to the likelihood of their ship being involved in trafficking in hazardous waste,” said Jim Puckett, BAN Executive Director. “We call on MAERSK to cooperate immediately in assisting the international community in preventing illegal dumping of hazardous wastes.”
