Health Fears For Thousands Of Toxic Dump Workers

 

A worker at a vast Romanian dump smuggles in a Sky News camera to show how thousands of people are forced to scavenge at the site.

The Romanian government is being accused of risking the lives of thousands of people by forcing them to live and work on a toxic waste dump.

Sky News gained exclusive access to the dump site on the outskirts of Cluj where men, women and children scavenge in squalid conditions to make a living.

Many are from the Roma community and have been evicted from their homes and rehoused near the former chemical dump, a former Soviet facility.

They collect waste by hand from huge rubbish tips built on top of the dump, which is 100m (320ft) high and 500m (1,640ft) across - a smoking, steaming pile of waste. It is simply vast.

Government and private contractors own all the waste

"The smell of rotten garbage, it gets to you," Alex, a local resident, told Sky News.

"You cannot stay outside for more than one minute. So you have to wear a mask so you can stay outside.