Brussels — After having
been alerted by the NGO Shipbreaking Platform, a coalition of environmental,
human rights and labour organisations, the Flemish Environment Ministry has
seized the end-of-life car carrier “Global Spirit”. The vessel is not allowed to
leave the port of Antwerp before the Japanese owners provide evidence that the
vessel will be dismantled in accordance with European waste law.
“We applaud Belgium for
having stopped the Japanese ship from sailing to Alang, India where the vessel
would have been broken under very hazardous conditions, an export which would
have been illgal under European law,” said Ingvild Jenssen, Policy Advisor of
the NGO Platform on Shipbreaking. “On
the shipbreaking beaches of Alang labour rights are poorly respected and
pollution laws weak or not-enforced
- the conditions we see in India
would never be allowed in Europe, nor Japan.”
Sold to shipbreaking
beaches in India
The Platform alerted the
Belgian authorities earlier this week after it had been reported that the
Global Spirit was sold to the infamous shipbreaking beaches in India where at
least six workers have died so far this year crushed by steel plates and many
more are sickened by occupational disease due to ship-borne hazardous
substances like asbestos or PCBs. According to the European Union Waste
Shipment Regulation, only if all hazardous materials, such as asbestos, residue
oils and toxic paints, are removed from
the Global Spirit, it can be allowed to be exported to South Asia. The
Regulation was designed to prevent the environmental injustice of rich
countries exporting their toxic wastes to impoverished countries lacking the
technology and infrastructure to manage such wastes.
The end-of-life vehicle
carrier Global Spirit has been used to transport cars for Nissan-Renault on a
regular route Morocco-EU-Turkey under long term time charter with Hoegh
Autoliners managed by Autotrans based in France. The owners of the Global
Spirit have already communicated to the NGO Shipbreaking Platform that they are
currently looking for an alternative breaking destination for the ship.
Sustainable solution
asked
“We now call on the
Japanese owners of the ship, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Limited (MOL) and Nissan Car
Carriers (NCC), to find a sustainable solution for their entire fleet – not
only the Global Spirit for which they have been caught red-handed – and adopt a
company policy on ship recycling that will ensure the safe and green recycling
of all their ships off the beach” said Ingvild Jenssen.
Last year Japanese ship
owner MOL sold six end-of-life ships to South Asian shipbreakers , prioritising
the best price for the ships and ignoring the harm done to workers, local
communities and the environment. The charterers of the Global Spirit, Hoegh
Autoliners, which is also a 20 percent shareholder in NCC, has already adopted
a sustainable ship recycling policy for their ships ‘off the beach’. More and
more progressive ship owners today
refuse to sell their end-of-life ships to substandard beach breaking yards and
the new EU Ship Recycling Regulation has set a clear standard for safer and
greener practices that disqualify the beaching practice.
Source:
NGO Shipbreaking Platform. 10 Jun 2014
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