NGO Shipbreaking Platform underlines that the explosion on the oil tanker MT Suvarna Swarajya in Bangladesh on September 7, 2024, has drawn attention to severe safety and labor issues in the shipbreaking industry.
Six workers died, and four remain in critical condition. According to NGO Shipbreaking Platform, the incident highlights the industry’s systemic evasion of international regulations. According to the NGO, the tanker was sold through middlemen to circumvent rules on safe dismantling practices.
Environmental and labor groups, including Human Rights Watch, have long criticized the weak safety standards in shipbreaking yards, particularly in South Asia.
Following the explosion, Bangladeshi authorities shut down the shipbreaking yard and launched an official investigation. The yard’s environmental clearance was suspended, and the company was ordered to justify why it should not be permanently closed.
Hong Kong and Basel: Telling conventions apart
The Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships (Hong Kong Convention) and the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal (Basel Convention) are two separate international agreements that address environmental concerns related to waste, but they focus on different aspects and types of waste.
Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships (Hong Kong Convention):
- In late June 2023, a historic moment for the maritime industry took place as the Bangladesh and Liberia ratified the Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships (the Hong Kong Convention, HKC), thus allowing it to enter into force. The HKC will become effective on 26th of June 2025.
- The Hong Kong Convention aims to ensure the safe and environmentally sound recycling of ships, particularly addressing the environmental and occupational health and safety issues associated with ship recycling.
- It specifically targets the recycling of ships and outlines guidelines and standards for ship recycling facilities to minimize the impact on human health and the environment.
- The convention establishes requirements for the design, construction, operation, and maintenance of ship recycling facilities. It also includes provisions related to the management of hazardous materials on ships and the development of a Ship Recycling Plan.
Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal (Basel Convention)
- The Basel Convention seeks to control and minimize the transboundary movement of hazardous wastes and ensure their environmentally sound management and disposal.
- It covers a broader range of hazardous wastes, not limited to ships. The Basel Convention applies to the movement of hazardous wastes across national borders, with the goal of reducing the generation of hazardous wastes and promoting environmentally sound management practices.
- The convention establishes a framework for the control of transboundary movements of hazardous wastes, including the requirement for prior informed consent from the importing country, the establishment of appropriate disposal facilities, and the promotion of waste minimization and recycling.
- The convention was adopted on March 22, 1989, in Basel, Switzerland, and entered into force on May 5, 1992.
While both the Hong Kong Convention and the Basel Convention address environmental concerns related to waste, they focus on different types of waste and have distinct objectives.
The shipbreaking yard had been certified by Nippon Kaiji Kyokai under the IMO’s Hong Kong Convention, which focuses on safe ship recycling but is criticized for having weak environmental and safety guidelines.
Activists argue for stronger enforcement of existing protections like the Basel Convention, which offers stricter controls. They also emphasize the need for global shipping companies to take responsibility for the dangerous working conditions in shipbreaking yards by ending the use of intermediaries that obscure accountability.
