Dumping ground

In the largest class action in British history, human rights lawyer, Martyn Day, is representing 30,000 Ivorians against the world’s third-largest oil trader, Trafigura.

The law suit alleges that the company neglected its duty of care when disposing of tonnes of toxic material that was illicitly dumped on the streets of Abidjan, the largest city in the Ivory Coast, with appalling consequences.

In the first film of Corporations on Trial – People & Power’s special series on the use and abuse of corporate power by some of the world’s largest multinationals – Juliana Ruhfus investigates the origins of the case and looks at some of the reactions to it.