In a clear shift from their earlier position demanding 'Clean Shipbreaking', environmental and labour groups including Greenpeace , Basel Action Network (BAN) and CITU (Congress of Indian Trade Unions), stated for the first time that India can no longer be considered a destination for any ship-recycling operations, now or in the foreseeable future, due to its blatant disregard for the environment, human rights, and international law. Bangladesh ship-breaking yards were likewise condemned as being no better, and at times, even worse. Worker mortality has been estimated at one death per day; either the slow death resulting from exposure to a cocktail of deadly chemicals or due to the common explosions caused by the torching of residual fuels from uncleaned vessels.

The statement by Greenpeace and BAN, supported by trade unions and other environmental groups, follows a recent decision by the Supreme Court Monitoring Committee to allow the Danish ex-ferry Riky, containing hazardous substances such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), tributyltin (TBT) and asbestos, to be beached and cut on the infamous ship-breaking beaches of Alang, in Gujarat. Earlier the Danish government, in repeated letters from their Ministers of Environment and of Foreign Affairs, had begged India to return the vessel as it was hazardous waste under the international treaty, the Basel Convention. The ship was exported without proper notification or assurances that it would be managed in an environmentally sound manner.

"In the absence of political will, we cannot force the shipping industry to clean up their act. The SCMC's reversal of its earlier stance on Riky has exposed that no one, not even a Supreme Court appointed authority, is free from pressure from vested interests. We wanted to ensure that India received clean steel and that the ship-breaking workers could retain their jobs and their health," said Ramapati Kumar of Greenpeace India. "But enough is enough! If Indian authorities cannot stand by their commitment to international convention and national laws, and instead encourage toxic trade, it is inevitable that the industry will suffer the consequences."

India has also shocked other delegates at a working group of the Basel Convention in Geneva this week by publicly stating that it had no intention of adhering to the Basel Convention Guidelines on Environmentally Sound Ship Dismantling. The guidelines call for, among other things, a no-spill technology to be used as of 2008. India had helped negotiate these guidelines that were adopted in 2003. In a Convention with 165 Parties, India was the only country to hold the position that deems a ship is not a waste under the Convention and therefore not subject to all of the control procedures and obligations of the Convention. Meanwhile the Defence Department of India is engaged in investigations of underworld connections in Alang.

"Government authorities have shown their complete inability to implement the most basic rules and regulations to safeguard labour interests – the workers lose life and limb for the sake of a mere fifty rupees a day," said PK Ganguly of Centre of India Trade Unions, "The workers would be better off seeking employment elsewhere – the government has failed them so completely that there is no point in allowing the industry to continue."

"Decades of Government apathy and refusal to address the worker health epidemic in Alang, combined with the Government's open support for the ship-breaking industry at any cost, indicate that there is absolutely no political will to protect the environment and labour rights. Until this changes, the ship-breaking industry in Alang cannot be tolerated," said Madhumita Dutta of the Corporate Accountability Desk, The Other Media, "For the eight years that the ship-breaking controversy has raged in Alang, nothing has been done by any of the authorities to improve worker health or to reduce exposure to toxics."

• More information 
• CITU website