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Bangladesh is
one of the countries
in Asia actively
involved in
commercial ship
breaking for more
than two-decades.
The ship graveyard
at Shitakundha,
Chittagong is a only
‘iron mine’ of the
land. Bangladesh
purchase on overage
180-250 old ships a
year for scrapping.
At present, the
number of active
ship breaking yards
is 30 and around
30,000 workers
directly and around
50,000 indirectly
employed there. |
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Key reasons for
establishment of the ship
breaking industry at
Shitakunda area are:
natural bathing and beaching
facility, little financial
investment on human resource
and machinery for operating
the business, high demand of
low cost raw materials for
re-rolling mills, cheap
labour, low enforcement of
legislation related to the
business, isolated from
conscious public eye and
weak monitoring
infrastructure of government
agencies. In reality, the
ship scrapping yards at
Shitakuda operate by
self-made rules of
yard/company owners. |
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The
work in the ship
breaking yards is
mostly labour
intensive and 100%
contract based. No
formal worker –
management
relationship and no
job security and
social safety-net
schemes for them.
98% of the labour in
scrapping yards are
illiterate, no
former training and
100% are
unorganized.
Occupational
accidents, injury
and deaths are very
frequent and normal
events there. |
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No available data or reports
on workers health in ship
breaking industries in the
region, more specifically in
Bangladesh. This indicate
that there are no nor never
have been any systematic
monitoring structure of
health among workers in ship
scrapping yards in our
region.
Workers receive potential
negative health impacts from
adopted traditional working
procedures in the scrapping
yards such as:
• torch cutting without
protection (eye and skin
injuries).
• heavy lifting (wear and
tear, back injuries).
• notice (hearing defects). |
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The Bangladesh OSHE
Foundation is currently
campaigning for:
a) Ensuring core labour
standards in the ship
breaking industry.
b) Effective implementation
of existing safety
regulations applicable in
the ship breaking yards.
c) Effective protection for
workers from asbestos
exposure.
d) Visible labour inspection
at the scrapping yards.
e) Compulsory safety
training for every single
ship breaking workers and
ban night ship work in the
ship breaking industry.
f) Child labour free scrap
yard. |
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