As the second of the US navy ships, the Canisteo, arrived in Hartlepool for storage pending a high court decision on whether they can be dismantled in the north-east, it was revealed that ships with similar problems from the British navy have been sold to Turkey for disposal and then passed on to India because they were banned by the Turkish government.

Representatives of a Turkish yard which breaks up unwanted ships on a beach 30 miles south of Izmir were back in London yesterday tendering to buy HMS Intrepid, a 12,000-tonne Falklands war veteran built in 1967 on the Clyde, which contains 40 tonnes of asbestos. Importing ships containing asbestos for scrapping is illegal under Turkish law.

Two years ago two other ships, the Royal Fleet Auxiliary tankers Olwen and the Olna, built in 1965 and 1966, were sent to Turkey to be scrapped. The Turkish environment ministry turned back the ships as it was illegal to import hazardous waste in the form of asbestos and PCBs, a toxic insulating material found in electrical equipment which causes cancer and birth defects.

The ships, then under a British flag, were sailed to Greece, registered under different names, the Kea and the Kos, and transferred to the Comoros, a flag of convenience. They were then sailed to Alang in India, where ships are beached and broken up by hand by workers with no access to protective clothing or face masks.

Exporting ships from developed countries to developing countries without removing all contaminants first is illegal under the Basle convention - to which the UK is a party.

The Ministry of Defence conceded yesterday that the two tankers had gone to India to be scrapped after being refused entry to Turkey but claimed contaminants had been removed beforehand in Greece. A spokesman claimed that no decision had yet been made to send the HMS Intrepid to Turkey but that Turkish yards had been asked to tender.

A spokesman said the ship would adhere to all Environment Agency and European commission rules. In addition, he claimed that since Turkey was a member of the Organisation for Economic Development and Cooperation, it had in place procedures for the safe removal of asbestos.

Both the tankers and the Intrepid contain asbestos that has been sprayed on and is extremely difficult to remove safely. The two tankers were initially sold to a German company, Eckhardt, for £748,000.

A survey by a British company, MIS Environmental, in 2001 on the Intrepid shows 300 compartments contain asbestos. There are also quantities insulating both funnels.

Marietta Harjono, a campaigner for Greenpeace, who visited the Turkish yard which is tendering to buy the Intrepid, the Anadolu Demolition Shipyard, at Aliaga Beach, 30 miles south of Izmir, found the work was done in the open air and there werE no facilities. "To claim that they have the required facilities to handle asbestos is laughable. These are the poorest, least well equipped workers."

Blake Lee Harwood, Greenpeace UK campaigns director, said: "The government and Environment Agency are behaving like complete hypocrites - taking urgent action to stop foreign ships being broken in the UK while simultaneously allowing the Ministry of Defence to export contaminated ships to countries with much lower environmental standards."

Article Link: Britain Offloads its Own Ghost Fleet