Non-governmental organisations are being shut out of shipbreaking yards in India where workers are said to have to put up with conditions like “the Dark Ages”.
An international coalition of 19 environmental, human rights and labour rights organisations has condemned the move.
The NGO Shipbreaking Platform aims to prevent the dangerous pollution and unsafe working conditions caused when end-of-life ships containing toxic materials are freely traded in the global marketplace.
The group has expressed “dismay” over the continued failure of the Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB) to be transparent and to grant access to see the working and environmental conditions at the shipbreaking yards in Alang.
The consortium say that over the past two months, the GMB has turned a “cold shoulder” to repeated requests to visit the shipbreaking yards on the tidal beach, where toxic vessels are broken up.
Last year the European Community Shipowners’ Associations (ECSA) and the Danish shipping line Maersk excluded the platform from joining field visits they organised to Alang.
Maersk recently reversed its ship recycling policy and began breaking ships on the Indian tidal shore.
The consrtoium say that this has had the devastating effect of legitimising across the industry the beaching method, which inherently pollutes coastal areas and exposes communities to toxins.
“In dismissing the platform’s request to visit Alang, the GMB has chosen to protect industry attempts to green-wash the dirty and dangerous breaking of ships on beaches. This lack of openness is disappointing and represents a decision by the GMB to keep Indian ship recycling in the dark ages”, said Ingvild Jenssen, director and founder of the NGO Shipbreaking Platform.
The European Commission is anticipated to prohibit the recycling of EU-flagged ships in beaching yards when it publishes its upcoming list of approved ship recycling facilities in non-EU countries.
The EU list represents an important turning point for sustainable ship recycling by setting a benchmark for an industry in which standards have been historically absent.
Maersk Line has been contacted for comment.