Hamburg, 7 March 2018 - On Monday, the NGO
Shipbreaking Platform, an international coalition of labour, human rights and
environmental organisations, withdrew their participation from the TradeWinds
Ship Recycling Forum that starts today in Hamburg. This is in response to a
letter from cash buyer GMS threatening to sue unless the Platform removes all
mention of GMS from their website. The Platform has frequently exposed the cash
buyer for enabling the dirtiest and most underhanded practices in the
shipbreaking industry [1]. Tradewinds refused to replace GMS company staff as
chair in the sessions in which the Platform was to participate as experts,
despite being noted that it is a conflict of interest and inappropriate to
allow discussions to be moderated by a person representing a company that is
threatening to legally attack a session invitee.
“No company would accept to participate in a
debate moderated by someone threatening to sue them”, says Ingvild Jenssen,
Founder and Director of the NGO Shipbreaking Platform. “We regret not being
able to present our views at TradeWinds where we would have especially provided
our support to the many financers, investors and authorities that are now
engaging to set a standard for the industry and who are demanding to move the
industry off the beach”, she adds.
In reaction to the attempt by GMS to silence
critical civil society voices that reveal the company’s unethical, dangerous
and environmentally disastrous business practices, the Platform’s legal counsel
in Belgium and in the US has further responded in a letter that neither an
apology nor retractions will be forthcoming.
“We have no intention to remove truthful
information from our website and will not apologise for reporting on the
business of trafficking ships for dirty and dangerous breaking. It is our
organisation's mission to provide authorities, journalists, and industry
stakeholders with information on the deplorable realities of current
shipbreaking practices which encourage the circumvention of existing labour and
environmental protection laws", says Ingvild Jenssen.
The harassment by GMS comes in addition to
the earlier threat to sue the Platform made by PHP, a Bangladeshi shipbreaking
yard and a supporting sponsor of this year’s TradeWinds Ship Recycling Forum.
NOTES
[1] Dubai-based GMS has been involved in
several cases of illegal hazardous waste exports that are being/have been
investigated by authorities and the police in several countries.
For instance:
- GMS was revealed to be the cash-buyer for
the illegal export of the North Sea Producer from the UK to Bangladesh: https://old.danwatch.dk/en/undersogelse/maersk-og-det-farlige-affald-i-bangladesh
- Three drill rigs cold-stacked in Scotland
were stopped from leaving after their destination was suspected to be to a
beaching yard in South Asia. GMS has been confirmed as the buyer of the rigs: https://www.energyvoice.com/opinion/162853/opinion-scrap-shady-underbelly-offshore-industry/?utm_source=twitter
- Last year, a worker in Bangladesh claimed
compensation for injuries incurred while breaking a ship owned by Zodiac
Maritime. GMS was revealed to be the cash buyer behind the sale to the
shipbreaking yard: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2017/dec/02/chittagong-shipbreaking-yards-legal-fight
- In 2009 the company was fined $518,500
dollars by the US EPA for illegally exporting a PCB laden passenger liner to
South Asia: http://www.marinelog.com/DOCS/NEWSMMIX/2009jan00311.html
CONTACT
Ingvild JENSSEN
Executive Director and Founder
Tel.: +32 (0)2 6094 419
Source:
NGO shipbreaking platform
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