11.2.2.4 Trafigura in Ivory Coast

Another infamous incident is the 2006 Ivory Coast scandal following the illegal dumping of 400 tonnes of toxic waste by a UK-based multinational company, Trafigura. The toxic waste was dispersed at different dump sites around Abidjan, in and near water streams and fields growing food. The Ivory Coast government reported that 15 people had died because of the pollution and 100,000 had to seek medical treatment. In February 2007, the Ivory Coast government signed an agreement with Trafigura, thereby releasing the Trafi-gura's directors from legal liability, in exchange for a sum of around £100 million "for damages sustained and the repayment of pollution cleaning costs." In addition, a group action by African victims was filed before the UK High Court. Their claims alleged negligence by Trafigura and that the nuisance resulting from its actions had caused the injuries. On 23 October 2008, Trafigura agreed to an order of the UK High Court that it would no longer defend its actions of having the toxic waste dumped in water ways and fields (Leigh Day & Co., 2008). A settlement was reached in September 2009 with a group of approximatly 30,000 Ivorian victims: Trafigura agreed to pay them EUR 33 million as compensation (NOS, 2009). In the meantime, an Ivory Coast court has ordered two Ivorian men to be jailed for their roles in this scandal (October 2008), and a UN Report had confirmed that the dumping had caused 108,000 people in the Ivory Coast to seek medical attention and that the Dutch authorities had not acted properly by allowing the ship to set sail with the toxic load. The report stated: "that there is strong prima facie evidence that human rights violations occurred as a result of this incident. Indeed, there is a strong basis to conclude that the deaths and illnesses were directly and indirectly linked to the dumping of the waste" and "at the very least, due diligence should have triggered additional inquiries into Tommy Ltd.'s[i.e. the Ivorian partner who took care of discharging the waste] capacity to treat waste in an environmentally sound manner (UN Expert Report, 2009, p. 18). By July 2010, criminal law proceedings in the Netherlands resulted in a sentence in which severe penalties were given (case Probo Koala (Broom II)).1