HUMANA – HOW COMPANIES CONNECT

• Humana People to People transactions are being investigated in Romania in a file regarding the illegal import of textile waste. The investigation started with a truck coming from Bulgaria.
• Prosecutors searched the organization’s central warehouse in Romania and identified over 180 tons of textiles that were torn and soiled
• The investigators discovered inconsistencies between the date when the textiles were imported into Romania and the dates on the disinfection certificates.
• The companies that issued the certificates have nothing to do with textile cleaning. They are specialized in grain and fertilizer trading, killing rodents and insects.
• Humana is also accused of importing poor quality clothes to Kenya, a country on the African continent that is overwhelmed by large volumes of textiles sent by EU countries. Experts claim that 40% of all imports that end up there are actually garbage.

February 2022. At the Vama Veche border crossing point, a truck is stopped for a routine check. The Coast Guard asks the driver for the transport documents and requires him to open the container so that the cargo can be checked. On paper, the truck was carrying 15 tons of second-hand clothing from Bulgaria that wast to be delivered “Humana People to People” warehouse in Ploiești, an company part of the internationally known network charity organization.

When the truck was stopped at Customs, the state authority was already on the alert regarding second-hand imports, which in reality were hiding textile waste.

The employees at the border requested the documents for the clothes of the people from Humana. They received some certificates that stated that the transported textiles had been disinfected by a company specializing in the extermination of fleas and cockroaches in Bulgaria.

The police randomly selected a few bags to open. Despite what the cleaning certificates said, they found clothing “dirty, stained, moldy, with lint, hair and gum on shoe soles.” All products were declared waste, and the truck was not allowed to enter Romania.

This shipment from Vama Veche was the starting point in a larger investigation ran by the prosecutors in Constanța who are now investigating textile imports connected to Humana People to People.

A year after the Coast Guard stopped the Humana truck, the police, prosecutors, Environmental Guard commissioners and Consumer Protection inspectors raided Humana’s main warehouse in Ploiești and declared that another 180 tons of textiles were torn and dirty. The clothes were not “subjected to the process of cleaning, disinfection and disinsection (…) and are unusable waste and cannot be sold on the territory of Romania“, according to a press release issued by the border police.

It was not the first time that the authorities visited the Humana warehouse in Romania. A few months before, Consumer Protection inspectors banned from sale over 170 tons of clothing, worth half a million euros. The reason? Inspectors argued that the certificates of cleanliness and disinfection were not issued according to the law.

In just a few years “Humana People to People” was targeted by two criminal complaints signed by Consumer Protection and the Environmental Guard for textiles that were brought to Romania from Bulgaria, Italy, Slovakia and Poland.

Similar to the cases of companies innvestigated in Jiului Valley, the problems arose when inspectors verified the cleaning certificates. The documents that make the difference between textile waste and second-hand clothes. Inspectors found that in the case of several transports, the cleaning and sorting certificates were issued after the imports were made.

Humana People to People challenged in court the fines received, but the cases were suspended until the resolution of the criminal case instrumented by the prosecutors from Constanța.

As for the certificates that raised suspicions, the lawyer of Humana specified to the control authority that the respective documents constitute an annex to the initial certificates issued when the transports were carried out, according to a document consulted by RISE reporters. The lawyer lamented the situation in which the company finds itself and insisted that the firms are at the mercy of the investigators. “National and European legislation does not define the cleaning process.“

“You can’t claim that you don’t know how to clean a coat, since you wear clean clothes,” reacted the former president of Consumer Protection, Horia Constantinescu, who added that in the Humana cases his agents noticed that “the clothes were only washed on paper“.

“It seems silly to me that I have to explain to some people how to wash a garment. It would be like having to define eating. It’s embarrassing. They wanted to convince us that the operation of fumigation and nebulization is the equivalent of washing. I asked them – do you spray your children’s clothes at home?“, Constantinescu reacted.

One year after the raids at the Humana warehouse in Prahova, the Prosecutor’s Office attached to the Constanța Court of Appeal confirmed that the investigation is ongoing regarding illegal imports of waste, as well as financial transfers suspected of tax evasion.

Sources from the investigation team explained on condition of anonymity that Romanian prosecutors visited also the Humana People to People warehouse in Varna, Bulgaria, from where most of the textiles brought by Humana to Romania come from. According to the sources, investigators found three washing machines that were used sporadically by the employees but “insufficient to clean the huge volumes sent to us in the country” .

The prosecutors’ visits were also determined by the fact that the Humana company from Bulgaria is authorized to import waste. According to the environmental permit, the company can annually process 16,000 tons of textile waste at the warehouse in Varna. In other words, all products that leave Varna and arrive in Romania must be cleaned and disinfected in the neighboring country, before reaching Romanian soil.

In the case of Humana, the substances found in the certificates that accompanied the goods brought to Romania vary from detergents for washing machines, to substances used in the veterinary field, cleaning surfaces, walls and floors.

The companies that issued the certificates are based in Varna and are specialized in grain and fertilizer trade, killing rodents or insects.

Sources from the Environmental Guard explained that Bulgaria is also facing the same problems like Romania. In many cases, textile waste ends up in the neighboring country, where its status is changed and it is transformed into second-hand clothes only in documents. After which they are delivered to Romania.

“The solution is to build a register for second hand, as we have for waste. Now we have no idea where it comes from and where it goes. Traders take advantage of legislative loopholes and import waste disguised as second-hand,” the inspector explained anonymously.

The most recent trucks, loaded with Humana People to People textiles, were stopped at the Romanian border in March and May this year.

The textile products came from the Humana People to People subsidiaries in Austria and Slovenia and were to reach two Romanian companies. One of the Romanian firms was accused in the past of not complying with the legislation on second-hand clothes.

In an official response, Humana Romania did not want to answer RISE’s questions and explain the accusations “because this investigation and its related files are not public, and the investigation is still ongoing“.

THE ALLEGATIONS FROM KENYA

Romania is not the only country where Humana People to People is suspected of bringing second-hand clothing and textiles of lower quality and in violation of the legislation.

The organization faces the same accusation in Africa, where investigations by international NGOs have revealed that Kenya is one of the most affected African countries by the imports of second-hand textiles and clothes.

The Changing Markets Foundation, an organization that fights for environmental protection, published an extensive report last year describing the social and environmental impact that textile imports have on Kenya. At least one of the companies with which Humana People to People Romania did business was mentioned in this report.

Many of the problems discovered in Kenya were also identified in Romania by the environmental and consumer protection commissioners – clothes that are burned in the fields, textile waste that ends up on the banks of rivers, illegal landfills where huge volumes of clothes are stored .

The reason? A large percentage of textiles and clothing cannot be used or sold, either because they are not culturally or climatically appropriate (winter clothes), or are out of size, or are dirty and damaged beyond repair.

“Almost 40% of the clothes sent to Kenya are essentially garbage, waste. I was shocked to learn the extent of the problem. About 400 million kilograms of clothing that have been sent to Kenya in the last seven years have essentially ended up on the banks of rivers or in landfills,” Worried Betterman Simidi Musasia, founder of Clean Up Kenya, an NGO who worked alongside Wildlight as the investigative team on the Changing Markets Trashion report.

Betterman claimed that the 40% represents waste disguised by importers under the terminology of second-hand textiles/clothing. The conclusion is that these figures are the result of weak control by the state authority, despite the fact that the legislation provides clear import criteria.

Investigators’ reports claim that in 2021 a third of EU textile imports to Kenya were made by Humana and Think Twice stores, which belong to Baltic Textile Trading (a company which, through a network of NGOs, is connected to Humana ). Investigators found that Baltic Textile Trading sold tons of second-hand clothes that were in an advanced state of decay.

At a conference on the impact of second-hand clothes held last year in Costa Rica, the representative of Baltic Textile Trading in Kenya admitted that the company he represents is in violation of import regulations.

“There is a Bureau of Standards for Kenya with a very strict classification that relates to how clothes are imported. And the office insists that clothes must come separately sorted. You can’t bring what is called a mixed category, but we bring it anyway,” claimed Martin Gitau Nyaga from behind the microphone, to the surprise of the audience who started laughing at the end of the speech.

The businessman is right when he said that Kenyan law is very clear on imports. In an official response the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS), the authority in charge of regulating the second-hand industry, explained that each imported bag should contain only one category of clothing and one type of footwear.

“Each bale should contain only one category of garments and only one type of footwear. Any unsorted/mixed textiles therefore do not meet the requirement of the standard and are issued with a Non-Conformity Report and therefore prohibited from entering the Kenya market.“

But sorting is not the only requirement for legal imports, KEBS added in the official response. Textiles must be accompanied by a health certificate and a fumigation certificate from a competent authority in the country of origin or export.

Nebulization is the process by which, with the help of a special device, a liquid biocide is transformed into vapors. The technology is used to disinfect closed spaces and is mainly used in the medical field.Nebulizing a room ensures almost complete destruction of dangerous pathogens.

Asked to comment on the findings of the environmental NGO investigations, Martin Gitau criticized the Changing Markets report, which he said he did not believe was done in a rigorous way. As for the statements made during the conference in Costa Rica, Gitau explained that the company he runs does not import unsorted textiles, and contradicted what the Kenyan authority said, which according to him would actually allow “a certain degree of mixed articles in a bale of second-hand clothes“.

Despite the written legislation, the reality in the markets shows the opposite. In some cases, local traders explained to NGOs that purchasing bags of clothes is a lottery and that no one knows what they are buying because the clothes are not visible. Only when the bags of clothes are opened can an assessment be made and not infrequently the clothing found was the wrong size, some clothes were stained, with animal hair and traces of vomit. A clear sign that the textiles have not been sorted or cleaned before being exported from the European Union.

“It is mandatory to clean these items before exportation,” added KEBS, which argued that if shipments contain soiled and stained clothing, they should be stopped upon entry into the country.

In the same event, alongside Martin Gitau, there was also an official of Humana. The latter presented the business model practiced by the Humana Second Hand Fundraising Project in Turkey, Lithuania, Estonia and Oman. According to what was presented to the audience, only 3% of the textiles that are sold as second-hand clothes are washed and cleaned before being exported. For the remaining 97% of the clothes, it is not clear whether they are sold in the same condition in which they were thrown in the street containers or if they are put through other processes.

These figures were presented at the same conference organized in Costa Rica and preceded the presentation by the representative of Baltic Textile Trading.

“We are not aware of any investigation after the publication of our report (…) which I believe has revealed a lot of information. Since we launched our report, the second-hand industry has not offered any plans or ideas for sustainability, to develop a circular infrastructure or even to help clean up areas affected by illegal dumping of textile waste“, expressed the disappointment of the founder NGO from Kenya.

Betterman added that shortly after the publication of the Kenyan report, the NGO he heads became the target of attacks from the companies that were nominated. “I encouraged them to do their own research. A few months later, they released a counter report to downplay our work.“

The conclusion of the second-hand clothing industry report was that the sector “actively contributes to the circular economy by promoting reuse and reducing environmental impact” and that only a small percentage (1%-2%) of the total number of items end up as waste which must be removed.

The editor of this report was Patrick Diamond, a professor at Queen Mary University of London and, according to his CV, a consultant for Humana.

We asked the London professor to explain whether the report he edited was partially or fully funded by Humana. Until the publication of this material, he did not respond to press requests.

“Humana is confident in its processes (sorting number) and the exported clothes can be reused“, Humana Lithuania reacted, adding that the company has some strict rules regarding quality control. As for the findings of the Kenyan report, Humana declined to comment, just as it declined to comment on whether the organization funded the report edited by the UK professor.

The European Environment Agency published a report last year drawing attention to the fact that African countries are being suffocated by textiles coming from Europe. Most clothing contains a high percentage of plastic that cannot be recovered or recycled. Once in landfills, on the banks of rivers or burned, microplastic fibers do not decompose, but continue to pollute the environment and eventually end up in food, in the air, after which it can be found in the human body.

“Charities in Europe as well as recycling companies, along with importers, have found they can use Kenya as a dumping ground,” Betterman Simidi Musasia said bitterly.

Although the images from Africa can also be found in Romania, the situation in our country regarding the trafficking of textile waste disguised in second-hand clothes is not found in any European report. The explanation is shockingly simple, experts said.

“There is no data“.