CUSTOMS officers in Germany have intercepted a shipment of CFC-containing waste refrigerators bound for Africa in a crackdown on the illegal trade by European authorities.
Officials stopped a transporter at Hessen near Limburg, Germany, carrying scrap cars and vans to the Belgian port of Antwerp. The vehicles had their windows painted out and their doors sealed but when officers broke in they found a large amount of illegal waste including CFC-containing refrigerators and freezers. The waste shipment originated in Austria, its ultimate destination being Lagos, Nigeria.

Africa has become the preferred destination for household waste such as refrigerators and old television screens from European countries, the majority of seizures being made in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Italy before the waste could be shipped.

In June, Nigerian officials were waiting in Lagos port for a ship arriving from Antwerp, after a tip off by Antwerp police that the MV Gumel Panama would be bringing in eight trucks full of illegal toxic waste -- including CFC-containing fridges and other waste items. It had managed to slip away after 33 similar containers had been confiscated in Antwerp. Two months earlier, another vessel filled with similar items was intercepted in the same port and sent back to Rotterdam.

Greenpeace estimates that the illegal trade provides an annual turnover of $124bn for the perpetrators and provides 1.5 million jobs. The organisation's report 'The Toxic Ships', published in June, reported 94 attempts to export hazardous cargo to Africa.