International Policy

Exxon Mobil Creates Green U.S. Recycling Jobs

BAN Press release: Exxon Mobil Creates Green U.S. Jobs

Seattle, Washington. November 8, 2011. – Instead of sending their defunct tanker to the infamous ship-scrapping beaches of South Asia, Exxon Mobil and wholly owned subsidiary SeaRiver Maritime, recently completed the sale of the S/R Wilmington, a 1984 built tanker, to a U.S. ship recycling… More

COP10 cartagena plenary - Photograph courtesy of IISD/Earth Negotiations Bulletin

Basel COP10: Developing Countries Say No to Toxic Ships

PRESS RELEASE Developing countries call on Basel Convention to become more active on end-of-life ships Cartagena, Colombia. October 21, 2011 – At the 10th Conference of the Parties to the Basel Convention, in an effort to prevent toxic ships from being dumped on… More

NGOs call on Bangladesh: Stop Death Ship Before it Kills Again

Brussels, 24 May 2011 – The Probo Koala, now re-named the Gulf Jash, a ship which caused an environmental and human rights disaster in the Ivory Coast in August 2006, has been sold for scrapping on the infamous ship breaking beaches of Chittagong in Bangladesh…. More

New Off The Beach website launched!

Log on to our new websitehttp://www.offthebeach.org/ and sign our petition to help us get shipbreaking off the beach!  You can also download our Off the Beach! report, follow the activities of the NGO Shipbreaking Platform on social media and learn about the four fatal… More

BAN PRESS RELEASE – Obama’s EPA allows toxic navy ships to be illegally dumped in Bangladesh

August 27, 2009, Norfolk, Virginia, USA  - Last night, the ship ANDERS (former M/V PVT. JAMES ANDERSON, JR), sailed out of Norfolk, Virginia with the likely destination being the infamous shipbreaking beaches of Bangladesh. According to the NGO Platform member organisation and environmental watchdog… More

New “Ship Recycling” Convention Legalizes Scrapping Toxic Ships on Beaches of Poor Countries

A MAJOR STEP BACKWARDS Hong Kong, 15 May 2009 -  At the United Nations International Maritime Organization (IMO) meeting this morning, human rights, labour and environmental organisations denounced a newly adopted international Convention on Ship Recycling as a failure, saying it would perpetuate hazardous… More

I.M.O. ship recycling convention denounced as “legal shipwreck”

ACTIVISTS CALL FOR BAN ON TOXIC SHIP BEACHING 11 May 2009 – Human rights, labour and environmental organisations warned today that the United Nations International Maritime Organisation (IMO), meeting this week to adopt a new convention on ship recycling, is poised to take… More

Children are breaking up the world fleet

16 September 2008 – Alerted as to the number of children working in the shipbreaking yards in Bangladesh, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and Young Power in Social Action (YPSA-Bangladesh) in cooperation with the NGO Platform on Shipbreaking publish today a… More

Otapan: Environmental Victory for Proper Ship Scrapping

16 May 2008 – Environmentalists toasted a major victory today as the saga of the controversial ship Otapan finally appears to be coming to a happy ending as it sailed Thursday night cleaned and decontaminated from Amsterdam to the Turkish shipbreaking yards of… More

BAN PRESS RELEASE: SS Oceanic: US EPA Sues Ship Broker for Illegal Export but Allows ‘Toxic Timebomb’ to Sail

20 March 2008 – Following a tip from the Basel Action Network (BAN) and Save the Classic Liners Campaign, the US Environmental Protection Agency has filed suit against a well known “cashbuyer” company that routinely buys ships from all over the world and… More