A ship once laden with asbestos, which has sat for nine years in a dock in the Netherlands, is now headed to Turkey for scrapping.

According to an article posted on the Environmental Data Exchange, the Otapan has been berthed in Amsterdam since 1999 and was eventually seized by the Dutch government when crew members were caught illegally removing asbestos from the ship in 2001. Environmentalists in the Netherlands called the exit of the Otapan a “major victory.”

The ship was headed to Turkey once before. In 2006, on its way to be dismantled, the Turkish government discovered there was more asbestos on board than had been revealed to them and they refused to allow it to enter Turkish waters. The ship was returned to Amsterdam and workers eventually removed 76 tonnes of asbestos and 335 tonnes of debris that contained asbestos-contaminated materials.

The NGO Platform on Shipbreaking, a coalition of organizations including Greenpeace and the Basel Action Network, had put pressure on the Dutch Ministry of Environment to decontaminate the ship before sending it to Turkey.

Erdem Vardar of NGO’s Turkish coalition, said: “While there was massive negligence on the part of the ship owners, and a lot of mistakes made by the Dutch government, the result is a precedent-setting success story that demonstrates that pre-cleaning and compliance with international law and guidelines can be achieved now, today.”

NGO believes that the ship’s Mexican owner, Basilisk, should ultimately reimburse the Dutch government for the cost of removing the toxic waste.

“It is shameful that in this day and age, ship owners continue to ignore their responsibility for their property at the end of its useful life,” said Ingvild Jenssen, director of the NGO Platform.

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