Platform News – Platform launches fundraising campaign for afflicted workers
More than 70 percent of end-of-life vessels end up in South Asia, where they are broken down under rudimentary conditions on the beaches of Alang-Sosiya in India, Chattogram in Bangladesh, and Gadani in Pakistan - a practice known as ‘beaching’. The human and environmental impacts of the shipbreaking industry are devastating. The industry is even considered by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) as one of the most dangerous jobs in the world.
Shipbreaking workers, often exploited migrants, lose their lives on accidents or suffer severe injuries, such as burns, amputations and serious spinal injuries, due to unsafe working conditions. The shipbreaking workers are also vulnerable to occupational diseases due to the exposure to toxic substances embedded within the ships’ structures, including asbestos, PCBs and heavy metals. Asbestos is one of the most common and most hazardous materials found onboard ships. When extracted, it breaks into fine fibres, which can be suspended in the air for long periods of time. If inhaled, the fibres can lead to fatal diseases such as lung cancer, mesothelioma and asbestosis.
Since 2009, around 7000 ships were beached in South Asia with a recorded data of 425 deaths and 329 injuries. The figures on accidents are likely to be much higher, and occupational diseases are not even registered in these statistics and are difficult to monitor.
We are now calling for your support to help injured workers and asbestos victims in Bangladesh. Check out our fundraising campaign for more information by clicking here or on the image below.


- RT @odmanasli: This is how a ship w. asbestos is NOW being dismantled in #Aliağa/TR Shiprecycling Area #KılıçlarShipyard, with workers from…3 days ago
- Grateful for the opportunity to present the advocacy work of the @NGOShipbreaking and the future vision for a gree… https://t.co/mRNjpLNQXs6 days ago
- RT @odmanasli: Another fatal workplace 'accident' in a EU-certified shoprecycling yard in #Aliağa #Turkey. Reasons of the so-called acciden…13 days ago
- Great to hear that the @ilo has added safety and health to the Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work! We ho… https://t.co/P3IL26hnzO13 days ago
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