Campaign group NGO Shipbreaking Platform has highlighted a pressing need to improve safety as the death toll rises at South Asian ship recyclers.
Its first-quarter report tallied two fatalities in Pakistan among a total of eight accidents in the region to 31 March.
“As the sector suffers from a serious lack of transparency, many incidents likely go unreported, particularly in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, where authorities and industry fail to publish data,” the organisation said.
“Moreover, the absence of data on occupational diseases, including cancer, further exacerbates the lack of accountability towards workers and leads to the workers being exposed to toxins unknowingly on a daily basis.”
The group said recent accidents demonstrate “the urgent need for improved safety measures”.
A total of 127 ships were demolished worldwide in the quarter, with Bangladesh handling 41, India 23 and Pakistan 18.
Turkish yards recycled 18 vessels. Two were scrapped in China and 25 in Europe and the rest of the world.
On 16 January, two workers named as Qasim and Mustafa were killed when a heavy iron plate fell on them while they were dismantling the 77,800-dwt bulker Catherine Bright (built 1998) at Dewan Shipbreaking in Gadani, Pakistan, the report said.
According to trade unions, the workers were breaking up the hull bottom when the accident happened.
The unions claimed there were inadequate safety measures in place.
Concerns raised
“The National Trade Union Federation has long raised concerns that various government agencies, including the police, allow for the sector to operate with impunity, and call for a full investigation of the accident that killed Qasim and Mustafa,” the group added.
Dewan Shipbreaking could not be contacted for comment.
Since 2009, NGO Shipbreaking Platform has logged more than 8,000 ships beached in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan.
Operations there have caused at least 449 deaths and 408 injuries, it alleged.
