Ship Breaking in Bangladesh
The NEWAGE
Ship-breakers protest at govt order
Staff Correspondent . Chittagong
Thousands of ship-breaking workers on Monday staged protests in the Chittagong city when the owners suspended operation at all the yards, demanding scrapping of the government order requiring the ship-breakers to have clearance from the exporting country that the ships to be imported were free from hazardous materials. Officer-in-charge of Sitakundu police station Munirul Islam said around thirty thousand ship-breaking workers moved to the city in trucks and staged demonstrations. ‘The workers staged the showdown as the owners stopped operation at the yards from Sunday in protest at the government’s new order,’ he added. The agitating workers also submitted a memorandum to the deputy commissioner’s office in the city, demanding withdrawal of the new order, officials said. Over 30 ships beached at the yards at the Sitakundu coast near Chittagong port for scrapping lied idle after the yard owners stopped works on Sunday, said the president of the Bangladesh Ship Breakers Association, Jafar Alam. “We will not resume operation at our yards until and unless the government withdraws the order issued to force us to obtain clearance from the exporting country about non-availability of hazardous materials in the imported ships.’ ‘It’s a conspiracy hatched by some quarters to destroy our lucrative ship breaking industry that is thriving employing around three hundred thousands of workers,’ he added, saying ‘It’s difficult to obtain certificates from the exporting country’. The association general secretary, Mohammad Shahbuddin, said, ‘Ships will not be imported by the yard owners if the new order is not scrapped and we the workers will lose our jobs.’ Meanwhile, Mohammad Ali Shahin, coordinator of the Young Power in Social Action, a non-government organisation working on environment issues, claimed that new order issued by the government would help stop the arrival of toxic ships for scrapping in Bangladesh. ‘Because of the ships containing hazardous materials, accidents took place frequently at our ship breaking yards killing workers as the ships were not cleaned before arrival,’ he said.