Brussels/Chittagong, 7 December 2017 - In
October, the PHP Family (Peace Happiness and Prosperity) shipbreaking yard
received a Statement of Compliance with the Hong Kong Convention [1] by the
Italian classification society RINA. Trade unions in Bangladesh, as well as the
Platform’s member Bangladesh Institute for Labour Studies (BILS), are concerned
that such a labelling sets a dangerous precedent for the further green-washing
of the Chittagong beaching yards. Workers and the environment are not protected
as long as ships are broken on the beach, and as long as fundamental labour
rights and proper infrastructure are not secured.
PHP is run by a renowned business family in
Chittagong, who also runs activities in the steel re-rolling and construction
industries, and owns TV channels. Trade unions made a formal request to
represent the workers at the PHP yard, but the management has systematically
rejected the workers’ right to freedom of association, and employees that have
strongly engaged in demanding respect of workers’ rights have even been fired.
Any worker association or NGO which does not praise PHP is received with
hostility and is not even allowed to visit the yard. As reported yesterday by
the Platform, accidents at the PHP shipbreaking yard continue to happen.
“It is shocking that a company that rejects
legitimate trade union activities can be stamped as operating in line with
international laws. The Hong Kong Convention clearly fails in setting standards
that will protect workers”, says Nazim Uddin, local trade union leader and
Bangladesh representative at IndustriALL.
Despite some investments in the PHP yard to
concrete parts of the upper beach, the severe deficiencies in infrastructure
for the containment of toxics renders any statement of compliance with
pollution prevention standards ludicrous. When vessels are cut in the
intertidal zone, toxics are inevitably released in the sea. The entire
Chittagong area is heavily polluted, and there is no means for any beaching yard
to handle and dispose hazardous waste, such as oil residues, heavy metals and
asbestos, in a safe and environmentally sound manner. The Hong Kong
Convention’s ship recycling requirements stop at the gate of the yard,
therefore the fact that Bangladesh still has no waste treatment facility for
general waste, let alone for the toxic materials coming from ships, is
completely overlooked by the Convention. Statements of Compliance with the Hong
Kong Convention are clearly no guarantee that the environment and workers are
protected from the many risks connected to the heavy and hazardous industry of
ship recycling.
“That a beaching yard in Chittagong is able
to comply with the Hong Kong Convention tells us a lot about the extremely low
standard set by the International Maritime Organisation”, said Ingvild Jenssen,
Director and Founder of the NGO Shipbreaking Platform. “Any ship owner looking
for a safe and clean location for the recycling of their ship will be wise to
disregard the very misleading Statements of Compliance with the Hong Kong
Convention, and instead consult the upcoming EU List of approved ship recycling
facilities”, she adds.
NOTE
[1] Statements of Compliance with the Hong
Kong Convention were first issued to beaching yards by the Japanese company
Class NK in Alang, India, last year. Other classification societies, such as
RINA and the Indian Ship Registry, have now entered the business of issuing
these statements, and a total of 47 yards have received such statements in
India, whilst PHP is the first, and so far, the only one in Bangladesh.
CONTACT
Ingvild JENSSEN
NGO Shipbreaking Platform
Executive Director and Founder
Tel.: +32 (0)2 6094 419
Source: NGO
Shipbreaking Platform press release
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