Minister in waste management scandal

Tunisia’s Environment Minister has been arrested following the attempted importation of household and hospital waste from Italy. According to a report in The Guardian, Mustapha Aroui was dismissed from his post and subsequently arrested last month, along with several other people, including senior customs officials, members of its waste management agency, Agence Nationale de Gestion des Déchets (ANGed), and a Tunisian diplomat based in Naples. In total, 23 people were taken in for questioning over assisting in the importation of household and medical waste from southern Italy in contravention of Tunisia’s environment laws. Aroui has not responded publicly to the allegations. Ines Labiadh, environmental justice co-ordinator at the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights, said the case highlighted a larger network of ‘failures and mismanagement’ within Tunisia’s environmental management, with government agencies suffering through a drought of investment or stymied by corruption.