Kosovo does not accept to have sent to China a load of 100 tons of hazardous waste, which was sent from the Port of Durrës.

The Albanian customs said that they were traded from Kosovo, but the customs in Pristina has officially stated that it only loaded zinc concentrates and not toxic waste.

While emphasizing that it is difficult to determine the accuracy of the course of events, Kosovo customs underlines that there is no export of hazardous waste.

“Albanian customs has referred these goods as zinc concentrate, exported from a company registered in Kosovo to a Swiss company. Since the Kosovo Customs does not have access to any official report, it is difficult to determine the accuracy of the course of events, as far as the search in our export data, we have found that:

– There is no export of hazardous waste corresponding to shipments of the nature reported in the media.

– Exports have been identified that are referred to in the statement to the media from the Albanian Customs, and the product in question, as has been pointed out by the Albanian Customs, is zinc concentrate and not waste. For this product, the owner of the exporting entity has provided test reports from the well-known industry testing company SGS”, says the Kosovo Customs.

This institution says that zinc concentrates are extracted from the Trepça mine and have been continuously exported.

“Similar exports are constantly made by the industry of the Republic of Kosovo and there have never been claims for the classification of these products as hazardous waste”, adds the customs.

Kosovo Customs says it has opened a wide investigation on this issue, while the investigations in Albania do not only include the cargo that is being returned from China, but also another one, which was produced by Elbasan and is being returned from Thailand.