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14/12/2005.
As the three United Nations bodies which govern the international trade in decommissioned ships gather in Geneva on 12 December, representatives of Greenpeace, FIDH and YPSA (Young Power in Social Action) from Bangladesh brought in Geneva images of 110 people who have lost their lives in Asia's unregulated ship breaking yards, giving the scandal a human face and calling for an end to the killing.
"Not all of the casualties of this toxic trade are known," said Sidiki Kaba, President of FIDH, at the launch of a new report on ship breaking produced jointly with Greenpeace. The report collects the stories of 110 workers who have died as a result of accidents at ship breaking yards in India and Bangladesh. "The stories represent only the tip of the deadly iceberg, it is estimated that the death toll over the last twenty years runs into the thousands, In addition there is no record of those who died of long term diseases related to toxic exposure."
Workers die and get injured because of the poor implementation of labour rights at the yards in India and Bangladesh, including the lack of protective equipment and restrictions on the right to organise and join trade unions. When they die, they leave their widows and children without any income.
End of life ships, when they are not pre-cleaned, should be treated like any other toxic material under the Basel Convention. Basel bans the dumping of toxic waste by OECD countries in non-OECD countries. However, the shipping industry and the IMO, fearing that ships become subject to a strict environmental justice regime, claim that the Basel Convention has no competence over waste ships.
The International Maritime Organisation (IMO), the Basel Convention and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) will meet during the next three days to discuss ways to bring the ship breaking industry under control. While the IMO has resisted any attempt to loosen its grip on all ship related regulation and bring the industry under the control of the Basel Convention. As a concession, earlier this month, the IMO announced plans to develop a new treaty on ship scrapping. However, it will not come into effect for at least another five years and is likely to place the burden of responsibility for hazardous waste on the developing country where breaking yards are, and not on the ship owners or developed countries.
By waiting, the IMO is deliberately exempting a massive flood of toxic single-hulled tankers that will be phased out in the next 5 years from any new regulations. FIDH, Greenpeace and YPSA demand immediate action to prevent further deaths.
"The shipping industry is happy to continue to send undecontaminated end of life ships - with asbestos, other hazardous waste and dangerous gasses in their structure and tanks - to places where workers and the environment are not protected and without taking any measure to prevent fatal accidents and pollution" said Marietta Harjono of Greenpeace International.
"While the talking continues so does the dying," said Harjono. This weeks discussions must conclude at a minimum that until the IMO provides new regulations for shipbreaking, the ILO Guidelines on shipbreaking and the Basel Convention should be applied."
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