Fatal explosion at Bangladesh shipbreaking yard exposes regulatory failures
The explosion on the oil tanker Suvarna Swarajya on September 7 in Bangladesh underscores the lack of adequate international and national regulations, oversight, and labour rights protections in the shipbreaking industry, Human Rights Watch and the NGO Shipbreaking Platform said on Wednesday, September 18.
Six workers have died and four remain in critical condition.
NGO Shipbreaking Platform said shipowners frequently use a network of middlemen and loopholes to circumvent international regulations that prohibit the export of ships to dismantling facilities in Bangladesh that do not have adequate environmental or labor protections.
Suvarna Swarajya was previously owned by the Shipping Corporation of India, then sold in March 2023 to Last Voyage DMCC, a subsidiary of Best Oasis, one of the world’s largest cash buyers of ships. Last Voyage DMCC then sold it in May to SN Corporation in Bangladesh for dismantling, despite the company’s poor health and safety record, with at least 14 deaths and 22 injuries since 2010 and before the sale.
The explosion occurred in the Unit 2 yard of SN Corporation, a few months after ClassNK certified the Unit 2 yard under the requirements of the International Maritime Organisation’s (IMO) Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships (Hong Kong Convention).
While the Convention will enter into force June 26, 2025, many shipbreaking yards are seeking voluntary certification using Hong Kong Convention standards.
Human Rights Watch, the NGO Shipbreaking Platform, and other rights and environmental organizations have repeatedly raised concerns that the convention provides for weak environmental and safety standards.
Human Rights Watch wrote to SN Corporation, Best Oasis, the Shipping Corporation of India, and ClassNK about the September 7 explosion. ClassNK responded on September 15 confirming that the company had conducted their audit based on IMO guidelines.
SN Corporation, Best Oasis, and the Shipping Corporation of India have not responded.
Countries at the IMO's Marine Environment Protection Committee meeting on September 30, including Bangladesh, should establish clear consensus that the Hong Kong Convention does not replace the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal, which applies to end-of-life ships, and offers a higher level of control, the organizations said.
Bangladesh authorities have indefinitely shut down SN Corporation’s yard where the explosion occurred, halted all work on Suvarna Swarajya, and opened an official investigation into the accident. The Department of Environment has suspended the yard’s environmental clearance and ordered SN Corporation to report within three days why the yard should not be permanently shut down.
According to data collected by the NGO Shipbreaking Platform, among the casualties in yards owned by SN Corporation since 2010, six injuries occurred earlier in 2024 across its three yards. Two of them were on Suvarna Swarajya in May, when a falling pipe broke one worker’s leg and a steel rope injured another worker’s hand.
NGO Shipbreaking Platform said that in 2021, one worker in an SN Corporation yard died when he fell from a ship during a cutting operation. In 2020, another worker died, also in an SN Corporation yard, when he was hit by a falling metal cable.
While the Bangladesh interim government has taken positive steps to address SN Corporation’s alleged failure to ensure worker safety, international corporations that enabled Suvarna Swarajya to be dismantled under alleged unsafe conditions should also be held accountable, the groups said.
NGO Shipbreaking Platform said that, at a minimum, if found responsible, the companies involved, including SN Corporation, Best Oasis, and the Shipping Corporation of India, should pay for the medical treatment, long-term rehabilitation, and compensation to those injured, and provide compensation for workers who were killed. In response to questions about measures they are taking to provide compensation, the companies did not respond.
