Customs to open all waste containers brought from the UK

The Customs has decided to open all the remaining waste containers that had been brought into the country from the UK in 2017, a senior Customs official stated.

The containers will be opened as part of a fullscale investigation that the Customs has launched over the waste containers. Only 5 of the 110 containers brought into the country have been opened to date. The remaining 105 containers will be opened and inspected by Customs officers in the coming days.

The Court of Appeal this

week, gave an interim order in response to a petition filed by the Centre for Environmental Justice, prohibiting the re-exporting of any of the goods of the two consignments of waste containers, without the prior approval of the Court.

The Court further prohibited any of the goods from being moved out of their present locations, to any part of the country.

The Court also issued an order to Sri Lanka Customs to obtain the assistance of the Government Analyst’s Department and submit a report on the consignments to Court by September 20.

One consignment of waste containers is lying at the Colombo Port, while the other is at the Katunayake Free Trade Zone.

Head of the Hazardours and Chemical Waste Department of the Central Environmental Authority (CEA), Ajith Weerasundara, said the Customs and Government Analyst’s Department have already initiated a full scale probe of the contents of the waste containers.

He said the consignment had been brought into the country without following proper procedures. “We plan on sending the cargo back to their country of origin, after the final conclusion of the probe, following a Court order,” he said.