Bangladeshi workers risk lives in shipbreaking yards

Chittagong: Mizan Hossain fell 1O metres from the top of a ship he was cutting up on Chittagong beach in Bangladesh — where the majority of the world’s maritime giants meet their end — when the vibrations shook him from the upper deck.

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He survived, but his back was crushed. “I can’t get up in the morning,” said the 31-year-old who has a wife, three children and his parents to support. “We eat one meal in two, and I see no way out of my situation,” said Hossain, his hands swollen below a deep scar on his right arm. The shipbreaking site where Hossain worked without a harness did not comply with international safety and environmental standards.

Hossain has been cutting up ships on the sand without proper protection or insurance since he was a child, like many men in his village a few kilometres inland from the giant beached ships. One of his neighbours had his toes crushed in another yard shortly before AFP visited Chittagong in February. Shipbreaking yards employ 20,000 to 30,000 people directly or indirectly in the sprawling port on the Bay of Bengal. But the human and environmental cost of the industry is also immense, experts say.

The Hong Kong Convention on the Recycling of Ships, which is meant to regulate one of the world’s most dangerous industries, is set to come into effect on June 26.

But many question whether its rules on handling toxic waste and protecting workers are sufficient or if they will ever be properly implemented. Only seven out of Chittagong's 30 yards meet the new rules about equipping workers with helmets, harnesses and other protection as well as protocols for decontaminating ships of asbestos and other pollutants and storing hazardous waste.

Chittagong was the final destination of nearly a third of the 409 ships dismantled globally last year, according to the NGO coalition Shipbreaking Platform. Most of the others ended up in India, Pakistan, or Turkey. But Bangladesh — close to the Asian nerve centre of global maritime commerce — offers the best price for buying end-of-life ships due to its extremely low labour costs, with a minimum monthly wage of around $133 (115 euros).