A court has set a European precedent for punishing shipowners for sending vessels to dangerous scrapping yards in South Asia.
Rotterdam District Court has heavily fined Dutch firm Seatrade for breaking EU waste shipment regulations by sending vessels to shipbreaking yards in India and Bangladesh.
Two directors of the firm have also been banned from working for a shipping company for a year and each been fined 50,000 euros.
According to local newspaper FD, the prosecution had sought prison sentences but this was not given as it was the first criminal prosecution of its kind.
Over 500 ships were scrapped in shipbreaking yards in South Asia in 2017, where dozens of workers lost their lives.
Ingvild Jenssen, founder and director of the NGO Shipbreaking Platform, said: “We strongly welcome the judgement of the Rotterdam Court.
“The ruling sends a clear-cut message that dirty and dangerous scrapping will no longer be tolerated.”
Earlier this year three Diamond Offshore floating platforms were blocked from leaving the Cromarty Firth in Moray for fear they were being sent to breaking yards.
EV has approached Seatrade for comment.