The Chittagong, Bangladesh shipbreaking industry is the world’s leading center for ship dismantling by steel tonnage. It is now undergoing significant upheaval as it gears up for the full enforcement of the Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships. With over 40 percent of the world’s scrapped vessels ending up on Chittagong’s shores, the impending regulations could have dire consequences for the livelihoods of the thousands employed in this hazardous sector.
In the last five years alone, Bangladeshi shipbreaking yards have documented at least 38 fatalities and 177 major injuries. For Delwar Hossain, it means making a measly 600 taka ($7.70) per shift. He fights against hazardous job site conditions and the threat of job loss as enforcement becomes tougher. To be real, I hate that I’m doing it, as Hossain confesses. Look, I don’t have a choice because I got to feed my family. It has become a deadly double standard for employees who work in an industry potentially poisoning them.
Chittagong’s shipbreaking yards have long gained infamy for their hazardous ship dismantling practices. Now that the vessels are ocean-going, they are loaded with hazardous materials, including asbestos, heavy metals, oils, and carcinogens. Beyond the dangers, the industry is currently directly creating 50,000 jobs. Mohammed Zahirul Islam, manager of PHP ship-breaking yard, points out that with new regulations set to take effect on June 26, most of these workers could find themselves without jobs. From June this year onward, he expects that number to drop below 10,000 people employed. Sadly, that means 40,000 workers might soon be out of a job.
The Hong Kong Convention has been justifiably lambasted. Second, it doesn’t even begin to address the most important aspects of the shipbreaking business, like enforcing labor rights or tackling pollution. Bareesh Chowdhury, BELA’s policy and campaigns coordinator, expresses skepticism about the Convention’s ability to make an impact. “It fails to tackle the issue with flags of convenience and cash buyers,” he says. Chowdhury adds that these gaps render the treaty ineffective, allowing developed countries to pass the responsibility for ship disposal onto less developed nations.
Those against the practice stress that shipping companies from countries such as Australia, Greece, and China pass on their end-of-life ships to cash buyers. In doing so, these buyers ship the vessels to be scrapped in Bangladesh, bypassing critical environmental and labor protections. Chowdhury points out that even under current law, only seven of their 114 member scrapyards would be in compliance with the rules.
Even worse, there is not a single hazardous waste incineration factory available across Bangladesh. The whole country is preparing to be in line with international best practice. It faces a huge blot on its copybook in the form of toxic waste that is routinely ignored within its shipbreaking yards.
Local practices may play the devil, according to Mohammed Zahirul Islam, the true villain is global shipping practices. “A ship gets built in the developed world, and they then enjoy their profit from that ship for 30 years,” he describes. And we only have that for six months, and all the negative attention falls upon us.
Major regulatory changes are on the horizon. There’s a lot of concern that this transition will lead to major job loss and economic upheaval in Chattogram’s shipbreaking industry. Last Friday, the government released a strong anti-drug policy. It will close down or prohibit scrapyards that don’t play by the rules set by the Hong Kong Convention from business importing end-of-life ships. This move has workers and managers equally concerned that this change threatens their jobs.
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