200-plus EU ships go to South East Asia

Europe – Greece headed the list of European countries which sent end-of-life ships to South East Asia last year for scrapping on the region’s beaches, according to NGO Shipbreaking Platform – a coalition of human rights, labour rights and environmental organisations which are active on the shipbreaking issue.

The third annual list from the organisation reads as follows: Greece (100 ships); Norway (24); the UK (13); the Netherlands (12); Germany (11); Italy (9); Cyprus and Switzerland (5 each); Bulgaria, Denmark and Romania (4 each); Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Spain and Sweden (3 each); Belgium, Finland, Ireland and Slovenia (1 each).

Each year, approximately 800 ocean vessels reach the end of their life and are scrapped. Around 80% of all these end-of-life ships end up on tidal beaches in developing countries such as Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, it is claimed.

In March, the European Commission is expected to release proposals for better enforcement of laws related to shipbreaking – the first since it published ‘Strategy for better ship dismantling’ in 2008.