News 152 Ships Sold to South Asian Yards as Scraps By maritimemag April 28, 2018 ShareTweet 0 Chinese Zombie Ships off the coast of West Africa, March-April 2006. These ships are engaged in IUU - illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing off the coast of Guinea, West Africa. The ships themselves have not been in port for perhaps ten years - they crew don't see land for up to two years. The Greenpeace ship Esperanza, with Greenpeace, Environmental Justice Foundation and Guinean authorities participated in the arrest of one of these vessels - on board were boxes for a ship of another name, and with the words “product of Spain". The crewmen, who are essentially indentured labourers live in appalling conditions on board. Some of the vessels no longer function, and are left at anchor offshore, with a skeleton crew on board. Later on the expedition, the Esperanza caught some of the working vessels transhipping boxes to a Korean ‘reefer’, which it then pursued to Las Palmas, in the Canary Islands. Activists blocked the ship’s cranes in for many days over Easter 2006, leading to the seizing of 11,000 boxes fishing stolen from the waters of West Africa and destined for the European market. The fish was returned to Guinea. Copyright 2006 Dave Walsh From a total of 206 ships, which were broken in the first quarter of 2018, 152 ships were sold to the beaches of South Asia for breaking, according to NGO Shipbreaking Platform. South Korean and UAE ship owners have sold the most ships to South Asian yards during the first quarter of 2018 with 14 beached vessels each, followed by Greek and Russian owners. Shipping companies from the United States beached 5 vessels. NGO Shipbreaking Platform informed that South Korean Sinokor is, for now, “the worst corporate dumper” with seven vessels beached in South Asia in 2018. Followed by South Korean H-Line Shipping with five ships sold for scrapping on the beach. Only three ships had a European flag – Belgium, Italy and Norway – when they arrived on the beach. All ships sold to the beaching yards pass via the hands of scrap-dealers that often re-register and re-flag the vessel. Almost half of the ships sold to South Asia this quarter changed flag to the grey- and black-listed registries of Comoros, Niue, Palau and St. Kitts and Nevis just weeks before hitting the beach. Furthermore, so far this year, 10 workers have lost their lives and two workers have been severely injured when breaking ships in Chittagong, Bangladesh. Another two workers were reported dead after an accident at a shipbreaking yard in Alang, India. NGO Shipbreaking Platform said that ship owners “continue to sell their ships to the beaching yards despite the well documented deplorable conditions.” © 2018, maritimemag. All rights reserved.
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