In the last four months, Aliağa ship recycling workers have faced three tragic fatal accidents. Despite repeated warnings by civil society organisations, inadequate occupational safety measures, insufficient inspections, and weak enforcement of labour and environmental regulations continue to threaten the lives of workers, and cause accidents that could have been prevented.

Several members of the Turkish Parliament join the NGOs in denouncing the conditions at the shipbreaking yards and call on the European Union to revoke approval of such practices.

“During meetings we held in Aliağa, almost every worker shared a ‘near-miss’ story. With wages that are below the poverty line, workers are forced to accept constant risk of occupational death. While it is impossible for the Ministry of Labour and Social Security not to be aware of this situation, the responses we receive to our parliamentary questions are limited to ‘copy-and-paste’ reminders of existing legislation. Moreover, although the necessary regulations have not been implemented, EU certifications are still in place. To stop occupational deaths and ensure decent wages, it is imperative that workers trust one another, unite, and act in an organised manner. We will continue to stand by workers’ struggle and to amplify their voices and their fight,” says Iskender Bayhan, member of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey from the Labour Party.

On 11 January, Salih Ataman, 49, died at Blade ship recycling yard in Aliağa, Turkey, when a massive hook detached from a crane and fell on him. Salih Ataman was dismantling the Discoverer Americas, a drillship owned by US-based Transocean Ltd.

Last year, another fatal accident occurred on 13 November at the EU-listed Temurtaşlar yard, where the Dolphin Leader, a ship owned by Dolphin Drilling [1], was being dismantled. Unaware that another worker was cutting the hull on the upper section of the vessel, Hasan Aktepe, 44, died when a large cut-off metal piece fell on him. According to the information provided by the workers from Temurtaşlar, the dismantling of the Dolphin Leader was conducted with lump-sum payments where a bonus is provided if the ship is dismantled rapidly. As highlighted in our report on the conditions at the Turkish ship recycling yards, this practice incentivises an increased pace and prolonged working days in violation of set working hours and official leave times.

Aliağa, Turkey, August 2023. Credit: Vedat Örüç

On 2 October, Halil İbrahim Uz, employed by a subcontractor of İzmir Mavi Denizcilik Geri Dönüşüm ship recycling yard, fell from a height of five meters. Workers raised concerns that the ambulance took at least 45 minutes to arrive. Despite eventual medical intervention, Uz’s life could not be saved. He was 45 years old, married, and had children.

These recent fatal accidents clearly show that Aliağa-based shipbreaking yards fail to provide essential safety provisions for their workers. The fact that accidents, which could have been avoided, also occur at EU-approved shipbreaking yards should prompt the European Commission to reassess the approval and the monitoring procedures of all Turkish ship recycling yards.

“We reiterate our call to remove the Aliağa-based shipbreaking yards from the EU list until stricter procedures in terms of occupational safety and the containment of pollutants are put in place. The fact that fatalities and dangerous practices, including payment methods that encourage breaches of labour laws, occur also in EU-listed yards should raise concerns over the EU list’s credibility and the EU auditing procedures of Turkish ship recycling facilities. We cannot accept this double standard, nor that the death rate from workplace accidents in the Aliağa shipbreaking region has consistently been above the Turkish average. Certification of these human rights violations must be halted,” says Asli Odman from Istanbul Workers’ Health and Safety Watch.
Source: NGO Shipbreaking Platform