Bangladesh is the third-largest destination where ships come to die. The country specialises in shipbreaking and the graveyard has been in Sitakundu, Chattogram since the 1970s.

Every day, the huge cargo ships are shredded by unskilled labourers. The labourers do not comply with work safety guidelines, which are not strictly enforced. The labour laws are a far cry in the shipbreaking industry.

The industry directly employs 50,000 people and another 1,00,000 indirectly and provides around 80 per cent of the country’s steel.

The ship scrapping industry is a dirty and dangerous economic activity amid poor transparency and inadequate monitoring systems by the regulatory authorities.

Shipbreaking in Bangladesh is strongly criticised by both international and national NGOs due to its dirty and dangerous practices. Concerns include abysmal working conditions, fatal accidents, exploitation of child workers, and severe pollution of the marine environment as well as the dumping of hazardous wastes.

The causes of death at the shipbreaking yards are many, including suffocation, explosions, falls from great heights and crushing due to falling parts of the ship.

As a result of working in hazardous conditions, shipbreaking workers are more likely to suffer accidents. These accidents are rarely reported due to the lack of transparency on the part of employers and the government.

Hundreds of workers are wounded and maimed every year. None of them receive adequate compensation. The wounded and maimed workers have never been provided proper medical care and do not speak about rehabilitation, according to award-winning environment defender Syed Rizwana Hasan, Executive Director of the Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (BELA).

BELA has been monitoring labour and environmental issues at the shipbreaking yards for more than two decades. “They work long gruelling hours without holidays, and trade unions are prevented from effectively organising them. When workers attempt to unionise or protest conditions, they are fired, harassed and intimidated,” she said.

Dozens of workers in the Bangladesh yards have died in recent times according to local NGOs, rights groups and media, but more still will suffer early deaths from their exposure to asbestos pollution.

A 2019 survey of shipbreaking workers estimated that 13 per cent of the workforce are children. Researchers noted, however, that this number jumps to 20 per cent during illegal night shifts. Many workers interviewed began working at the age of 13.

The authorities have minimum wage compensation for factories which is rigorously implemented in export-oriented industries.

However, the average daily salary is between BDT 400 and 600. The workers have been fighting for their labour rights because they do not receive official minimum wages, and do not have access to health facilities or the employer compensate the costs of their treatments, lamented Young Power in Social Action (YPSA), an NGO working in Sitakundu.

The hospital building set up by the Bangladesh Shipbreakers Association (BSBA) is operated in conjunction with a private clinic and can only provide treatment for minor injuries. Many workers succumb to their injuries on their way to the closest specialised government hospital in Chattogram city.

Multinational shipping firms appear to have distanced themselves from these deaths in part by selling their end-of-life vessels to so-called cash buyers, many of them are based offshore and their ownership is kept secret.

Accidents are commonly caused by fire and explosions, falling of heavy objects, electrocution, falls from height as well as mental and physical stress and fatigue, the YPSA monitoring report found.

Workers consistently said that they are not provided with adequate protective equipment, training, or tools to safely do their jobs. Workers described using their socks as gloves to avoid burning their hands as they cut through molten steel, wrapping their shirts around their mouths to avoid inhaling toxic fumes and carrying chunks of steel barefoot.

As per the Ship Recycling Rules 2011, “no person shall be allowed to be employed in a shipbreaking yard without appropriate training certificate”.

Besides not having appropriate training and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) while working in dangerous procedures.

However, most of the time the workers do not receive any compensation even if they are not able to work anymore due to their injuries, like amputation of limbs or other life-threatening injuries.

Despite laws existing in Bangladesh to protect both workers and the environment, these are poorly implemented due to the weak enforcement management of the both Department of Environment and the Department of Labour and are deliberately ignored as a result of political pressure.

The environmental laws and guidelines are regularly flouted by the shipbreaking owners who have political clouts, supervisors and private buyers for illegal markets who also work as the yard’s henchmen.

The president of the Bangladesh Ship Breakers and Recyclers Association Abu Taher is in denial mode of large-scale asbestos poisoning among ship-breaking workers. There is no asbestos victim in the industry, as the ships built after 2000 do not carry any asbestos.

"It has been a conspiracy to shut down the prospective ship-breaking industry in Bangladesh," he accused the media and NGOs of false narrative against the industry.

Several shipbreaking workers have only now started to manifest symptoms of asbestosis such as chest pain and lack of breath asbestos symptoms usually appear many years after the initial asbestos exposure. Despite their weak health condition, most of the sick workers continue to dismantle vessels to feed their families.

In Bangladesh, the life expectancy for men in the shipbreaking industry is 20 years lower than the average.

• Saleem Samad is Deputy Editor of The Daily Messenger and an award-winning journalist. An Ashoka Fellow and recipient of the Hellman-Hammett Award.