A new report by NGO
Shipbreaking Platform reveals that more than 60% of 768 ships sold for scrap
last year were broken on the beaches of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, where
ship owners have to improve shipbreaking practices.
The shipbreaking
yards in South Asian do not provide fundamental labor rights, ignore
international waste trade law, and fail to respect international environmental
protection standards, according to the report.
The data shows that
768 large vessels were sold to the scrap yards last year, with 469 were broken
on the beaches of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Last year, Greek
owners sold the most end-of-life vessels to dirty and dangerous shipbreaking
sites in South Asia, according to the NGO Shipbreaking Platform. Meanwhile,
Bangladesh became the world’s number one destination for scrap ships for the
first time in many years.
“Despite a lot of
international attention on the problems of shipbreaking on the beaches of South
Asia, the statistics for 2015 show that the vast majority of ship owners have
not changed their practice for the better. On the contrary, most have opted for
one of the worst shipbreaking destination in the world – Bangladesh, where
children are still illegally exploited to break ships manually on tidal
mudflats”, NGO Shipbreaking Platform Director Patrizia Heidegger said in a
statement.
The NGO applauds
the European Union’s plan to publish a list of approved ship recycling
facilities worldwide by the end of 2016.
“This will satisfy
the call from those that demand better practices, including investors such as
ABN-Amro and cargo owners such as H&M, Stora Enso and Phillips – none of
whom wish to be associated with polluting and harmful end-of-life management of
old ships,” according to the group.
The NGO wants
shipping companies and their investors to only allow their vessels to go to
yards listed on the EU list. It also recommends governments to take steps to
ensure national use of the EU list.
Source: gcaptain. 05
February 2016
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