The Court further ordered that no end-of-life vessel shall be imported by Bangladeshi shipbreakers without having been pre-cleaned of hazardous materials such as asbestos, PCBs, heavy metals and oily sludges before arriving in Bangladesh. This “pre-cleaning” requirement is in accord with Bangladesh’s national toxic waste import ban as well as its responsibilities as a Party to the Basel Convention -- a UN treaty which decided in 1995 to ban the export of toxic wastes to developing countries for any reason. Pre-cleaning has been one of the demands of the NGO Platform on Shipbreaking in order to avoid developing countries receiving a deadly and disproportionate burden of toxic ship waste from the global shipping industry.

“This decision to finally enforce existing international and Bangladeshi law on this very dangerous and damaging industry is long overdue,” said Rizwana Hassan of BELA. “There are ways to import and recycle steel without having to accept the gross pollution of our fragile coastal zone, nor the exploitation and extremely dangerous working conditions that have killed so many of our young men,” said Rizwana Hassan from BELA.

The Court decision was based on a startling report submitted by the Department of Environment (DoE) on 11 December 2008 which revealed that none of the 36 shipbreaking yards operating on the beaches near Chittagong, Bangladesh, have the required environmental clearance. The Court stated that it was appalled to learn that the Department of Shipping has illegally facilitated the import of toxic ships and has directed the Ministry of Environment to frame, within three months, necessary rules on ship breaking based on the obligations of Bangladesh under the Basel Convention, the Environment Conservation Act and the Environment Conservation Rules. It also called for the formation of a committee to monitor the implementation process.

Currently minimum age requirements, trade union rights and safety regulations are completely disregarded on the yards. New rules for shipbreaking must take into account the International Labour Organisation Conventions ratified by Bangladesh which to date are ignored.

The decision comes just a few months before the adoption of a new Convention on Ship Recycling negotiated by the International Maritime Organization that has been roundly criticized for doing far too little to prevent toxic ship scrapping on South Asian beaches.

“This ruling sends an unmistakable signal that Bangladesh will no longer compromise the welfare of its poorest workers, nor its environment for the sake of narrow industrial interests that refuse to recognize that it is impossible to safely dismantle ships containing toxic wastes on a tidal beach,” said Jim Puckett, Coordinator of the Basel Action Network, a Basel Convention watchdog group and member organization of the NGO Platform. “It is indeed time for the rest of the world and in particular the International Maritime Organization to similarly draw a line in the sand demand an end to the dumping of toxic ships on the beaches of the poorest countries of the world,” he said.

For more information:

Rizwana Hassan of BELA, for legal situation in Bangladesh:
+88 02 8612957, bela@bangla.net

Jim Puckett, Basel Action Network, in Seattle:
+1 206.652.5555, jpuckett@ban.org

Ingvild Jennsen of the NGO Platform on Shipbreaking:
+32 2 6094 419 / +32 485 190 920, ingvild@shipbreakingplatform.org

www.ban.org
www.shipbreakingplatform.org