Platform News – ‘With Bare Hands’: an immersive journey into the problems of shipbreaking
International media outlets publish 'With bare hands', the first multimedia and data-driven reporting project that documents the negative impacts on the environment and the human costs of shipbreaking in South Asia. Spanish daily newspaper El Pais and international news channel Al Jazeera are the first to make this reporting available.
Isacco Chiaf, graphic designer, and Tomaso Clavarino, journalist and photographer, are behind this outstanding project, which was funded by the European Journalism Centre. The two Italians travelled to Bangladesh and India, where dirty and dangerous scrapping is conducted on the tidal beaches of Chittagong and Alang. With texts, infographics, videos, photo-essays, interviews and maps, they have been able to show how shipbreaking activities are contributing to the destruction of the ecosystem and negatively affecting the lives of thousands of people.
The multimedia platform highlights the issues of child labour, environmental pollution and lack of healthy and safe working and living conditions. Maps and graphs, based on the NGO Shipbreaking Platform’s data, focus on the practices of the shipping industry such as the use of flags of convenience and cases of illegal trafficking. Interviews with Patrizia Heidegger, the Platform’s executive director, and Muhammed Ali (Shahin), the Platform’s coordinator in Bangladesh, are also featured.
Related news
Platform publishes South Asia Quarterly Update #11
The NGO Shipbreaking Platform publishes today the eleventh South Asia Quarterly Update, a briefing paper in which it informs about the shipbreaking industry in Bangladesh, India and… Read More
Platform publishes South Asia Quarterly Update #15
There were a total of 206 ships broken in the first quarter of 2018. Of these, 152 ships were sold to the beaches of South Asia for… Read More
Platform News – Maersk incited business partner to opt for worst breaking practices for 14 ships
A third report by the investigative journalists of Danwatch, “Maersk and the shadowy deals”, reveals that the Danish container ship giant has incentivised the sale of 14… Read More
Press Release: Need for reform of ship recycling sector in Turkey has never been more apparent after massive fire and waste dumping scandal revealed
In recent months, Turkey’s ship recycling sector has experienced significant movements. From controversies surrounding the sale of shipbreaking yards to the arrival of a UK Navy vessel,… Read More

Platform publishes South Asia Quarterly Update #20
There were a total of 122 ships broken in the third quarter of 2019. Of these, 73 ships were sold to the beaches of South Asia for dirty and dangerous breaking.
... Read More
Press Release – Platform publishes list of ships dismantled worldwide in 2021
763 ocean-going commercial ships and floating offshore units were sold to the scrap yards in 2021. Of these, 583 ended up on the beaches of South Asia, amounting to near the totality of the gross tonnage dismantled globally.
... Read More