The NGO Shipbreaking Platform regrets that the Rongdhonu, former Greenpeace Rainbow Warrior II, has been sold for scrapping on the beaches of Chittagong, Bangladesh. Greenpeace International had donated their former flagship to another NGO, Friendship, for use as a hospital ship in Bangladesh. This NGO sold the vessel for breaking in Chittagong under supervision of Greenpeace.
Greenpeace has issued a statement of regret and of their full support for the NGO Shipbreaking Platform’s campaign to get ship recycling off the beach. Indeed, Greenpeace campaigned on this issue for many years.
The NGO Shipbreaking Platform, an alliance of human rights, labour, and environmental non-governmental organizations working internationally to raise the standard of ship recycling, agrees with the European Union (EU) that ship recycling must take place off the beach and in safe, secure facilities that the EU has listed based on environmental and social criteria. We will continue to work with leaders in the industry and governments to reform the shipping industry’s substandard practices that every year cause fatalities, occupational disease, and irreparable harm to the marine environment.