Environment state secretary Pieter van Geel said the Dutch are prepared to pay for the costs of removing thousands of kilos of asbestos from the ship Otapan and will reclaim the costs later from the Turkish owner Simsekler, reports today’s Volkskrant.

The ship has been refused permission to dock since leaving the Netherlands in July because it contains asbestos. The cost of the operation is unknown but will run into ‘hundreds of thousands’ a ministry spokesperson told the paper.