NGO Shipbreaking Platform published its annual list of ships dismantled worldwide in 2025. A total of 321 vessels were dismantled globally last year, of which 214 ended up in Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan. We know of 11 workers, who lost their lives, and at least of another 62 workers, who were injured due to unsafe working practices.

Bangladesh and India remain the shipping industry’s first choices for scrapping, despite documented serious consequences for workers, local communities and fragile coastal ecosystems. Although the Hong Kong Convention entered into force in June last year, fatal accidents remain the norm, which raises concerns over the Convention’s poor standards. In Bangladesh, 17 yards got an official Hong Kong Convention approval. In India, none of the yards obtained the official approval. However, a vast majority of them hold a private statement of compliance with the Convention’s requirements.

The widespread use of Flags of Convenience (FOCs), layered ownership structures, and offshore intermediaries enables shipowners to circumvent regulations and obscure accountability. Prior scrapping, vessels are commonly reflagged to a small group of low-oversight FOCs, such as Comoros, Palau, St. Kitts and Nevis, in a practice known as flag-hopping or flag-swapping, a phenomenon that allows easy circumvention of the EU Ship Recycling Regulation and the Hong Kong Convention.

China is the country that tops the 2025 Dumpers List, with 21 Chinese-owned vessels sold to South Asian shipbreakers, mainly in Bangladesh, despite China’s domestic capacity to recycle ships in dry-dock facilities. South Korea and the UAE are close runner-ups, with 19 and 17 vessels beached respectively.

South Asia Quarterly Update #44

With this format, we bring close attention to Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan, situation of workers and accidents that occurred, and recent developments. For this issue, we were pleased to interview Mr Satish Sinha, Associate Director of Toxics Link. Toxics Link is an Indian-based organisation working on waste and chemical issues, and proposing solutions for sustainable waste management with a focus on vulnerable and marginalised communities.

The SEAPEAK ASIA beached in Chattogram, Bangladesh in January 2026 – © Spencer Call

In the last quarter of 2025, at least 3 workers suffered from accidents that happened during their work in ship recycling yards in Bangladesh. Habibur Rahman, 31, got injured when an iron plate fell on him in a yard belonging to S.N. Corporation. Harun, 60, hurt his hand while cutting an iron plate at Mahinur Ship Recycling Yard. The most serious accident happened at Jamuna Shipbreaking Yard, where Azim Uddin, 60, got struck by an iron plate, which led to him falling from height. Despite the medical help, the injuries led to his death.

Fatal accidents in Chattogram continue happening

On 1 January, Abdul Khalek (34) and Md. Shaiful Islam (38), both security guards, lost their lives during the beaching of the vessel SEAPEAK ASIA (IMO 9236420), owned by Seapeak, at K.R. Ship Recycling Yard at night, despite night shifts being prohibited by Bangladeshi law. The body of one worker and the severed body parts of another were recovered on the coast.

Local sources and NGOs report that the incident was a workplace accident, contradicting the initial attempt by the yard owner to deny responsibility by claiming that the deaths resulted from a robbery at the yard and an external attack. Industrial Police Inspector Nahid Hasan Mridha stated that preliminary findings indicated the deaths were likely caused by an accident during the beaching operation at night and that there was no initial evidence to suggest a robbery.

Chattogram’s shipbreaking beach in Bangladesh – January 2026 – © Spencer Call

According to IndustriALL, compensation of 1.1 million BDT (approximately 7600 euros) was paid to each family after negotiations with the yard owner. In the case of the SEAPEAK ASIA, the vessel’s rapid flag changes — from Spain to the Bahamas in September, and again in December to St Kitts and Nevis — appear designed to evade the EU Ship Recycling Regulation, which requires EU-flagged ships to be scrapped only in EU-approved yards. No yards in South Asia are on the EU List.

Fatal accidents in Aliağa continue to raise serious concerns on Turkish shipbreaking yards’ safety

Several fatal accidents occurred throughout last months in Aliaga, Turkey, where many EU-listed ship recycling facilities are located.

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.

Another fatal accident occurred on 13 November at the EU-listed Temurtaşlar yard, where the Dolphin Leader, a ship owned by Dolphin Drilling, 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.

Aliağa, Turkey – © Evrensel

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 accidents raise serious concerns over the safety of Turkish ship recycling yards.

Asli Odman from Istanbul Worker’s Health and Safety Watch : “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.”

EU updates ship recycling certificates

DG Environment introduced new formats for ship recycling certificates – Inventory of Hazardous Materials (IHM) and Ready for Recycling form. This move aims to reduce the administrative burden for ship owners and facilitate implementation of the requirement for each ship to carry an IHM.

Even though we welcome the decision to lift some administrative barriers, we remain concerned that the Hong Kong Convention sets generally weak standards for ship recycling, e.g. not excluding beaching as a shipbreaking procedure. We call the European Commission to continue pushing for ambitious standards at the international level.
Source: NGO Shipbreaking Platform