Brussels, 3 October 2013 – The NGO Shipbreaking Platform and
its 18 member organisations are calling on India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh to
halt the import of the damaged, presumably toxic ship Hansa Brandenburg. It is
suspected that the German owner, the Leonhardt & Blumberg group, has sold
the Hansa Brandenburg for breaking in South Asia, most likely to India. The
container ship caught fire in July and was later towed to Port-Louis in
Mauritius.
The Mauritian authorities dealing with hazardous waste
confirmed that the ship is still in Port-Louis, but could soon leave as
Mauritius refused to deal with the burnt containers and cargo which, in all
likelihood, contain a substantial amount of hazardous materials such as heavy
metals or PCBs. Moreover, the vessel is suspected to carry dangerous substances
in fire fighting water as well as a significant amount of fuels and oil.
Therefore, the NGO Shipbreaking Platform is concerned that the Hansa
Brandenburg, which was not cleaned after the fire on board, is contaminated
with hazardous substances.
Last year, another German-owned container ship, the MSC
Flaminia, caught fire and was severely damaged. The owner of the ship had to
clean it in a German port and then sent it for repair within the EU. The NGO
Shipbreaking Platform calls on Leonhardt & Blumberg to make sure that toxic
residues left by the fire as well as the hazardous substances in the structure
of the ship are taken care of in a facility that is adequately equipped for the
task. The costs for such an operation must be paid by those responsible, not by
the workers and the environment on a beach.
“If the ‘Hansa Brandenburg’ is sent to India, this would be
another typical case of bad practice where a wealthy shipping company rids
itself of its environmental and social responsibility by dumping waste in a
substandard yard in South Asia – just because it is more profitable,” said
Patrizia Heidegger, Executive Director of the NGO Shipbreaking Platform.
Based in Hamburg, the Leonhardt & Blumberg group is
already known for its malpractice to dump old ships in substandard facilities
in India: in 2012, the Hansa India was beached in Alang, India, followed in
2013 by the Hansa Trondheim, the Hansa Stavanger, the Hansa Pacific and the
Hansa Atlantic. This year, Leonhardt & Blumberg changed the flags of all
its beached end-of-life vessels to Sierra Leone or Comoros before beaching – a
typical sign that the owner used a cash buyer as a middle man and seeks to
avoid any legal responsibility.
Leonhardt & Blumberg had promised the German Government
that at least part of its fleet would again fly the German flag in return for
tax incentives under the tonnage tax system. Frank Leonhardt, who co-owns
Leonhardt & Blumberg, is the former president of the German Ship Owners
Association, a lobbying group representing the shipping industry’s interests.
However, currently only one of their ships flies a German flag. Reflagging to
flags of convenience allows shipowners to circumvent stricter law in Europe,
for instance with regards to workers’ rights or environmental protection. Under
the new European Regulation on Ship Recycling, which will enter into force
early in 2014, ships flying the flag of an EU Member State can only be
dismantled in a ship recycling facility approved by the European Commission in
order to ensure workers’ safety and environmentally sound management of
hazardous wastes. If Leonhardt & Blumberg continue to re-flag their vessels
to Sierra Leone or the Comoros before scrapping, they will deliberately avoid
the new regulation.
With about 4,000 merchant ships, Germany owns the world’s
biggest commercial shipping fleet. It is also one of the worst dumpers of toxic
ships: in 2012, 58 German-owned ships were beached in South Asia, and another
34 have already been sent between January and June 2013. Last year, 365
end-of-life ships owned by European companies were dumped in South Asia.
“We are not the dumping ground for the toxic vessels of the
ship-owning countries,” said Ritwick Dutta, environmental lawyer at the Indian
NGO Legal Initiative for Forest and Environment (LIFE). “The Indian authorities
must halt the import of the ‘Hansa Brandenburg’ and make sure our workers and
our environment are not exposed to toxic substances which cannot be treated
adequately.”
The beaches of South Asia are the
final destination for 70% of the world’s end-of-life vessels. Hazardous
materials cannot be safely removed from end-of-life ships by untrained workers
exposed to one of the most dangerous jobs in the world. Hazardous waste such as
asbestos, PCBs, TBTs, heavy metals and oil residues are often not identified
correctly and may even be resold on the local market or dumped into the
environment without proper care. Lack of training and awareness leave
shipbreaking workers – especially in Bangladesh where child labour takes place
– exposed to the inhalation of toxic fumes that can lead to severe diseases,
including cancer. Accidents are frequent in the yards: in 2012, the NGO
Shipbreaking Platform recorded 40 deaths in the shipbreaking yards in South
Asia, although the restricted access to information may hide more victims and
the long-term effects of occupational diseases are not recorded.
Source: shipbreaking platform.
3 October 2013
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