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Shipbreaking NGO Wins FPSO Case
The High Court Division of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh
declared the import, beaching and breaking of the infamous FPSO
North Sea Producer illegal.
The judgment was issued in a Public Interest Litigation (PIL)
filed by NGO Shipbreaking Platform member organization Bangladesh
Environmental Lawyers Association (BELA).
The Court further noted with dismay the incessant violations of
national and international laws by the shipbreaking industry, and
passed several directions upon the government to regulate the
sector in line with earlier rulings.
Already in August 2017, the Bangladesh Court had issued an
injunction on the ongoing breaking of the North Sea Producer
based on the detection of radiation levels higher than permitted.
It has now directed national agencies to monitor the breaking of
what is left of the FPSO without any involvement of Janata Steel,
the yard that had beached the vessel in 2016. The Department of
Environment has also been directed to claim compensation from the
yard for having violated national environmental rules.
Syeda Rizwana Hasan - Supreme Court lawyer and Director of
Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association, said: "The judgment
is important in that it has expressly called the import, beaching
and breaking permits illegal, and for the first time a breaker
has been put off the breaking operation and the government has
been given the steering. It is even more important because it has
required the government to regulate the dubious roles of the cash
buyers and restrict import from grey- and black-listed flag
registries. This will surely make it difficult for the
unscrupulous players to treat Bangladesh as a dumping ground."
Noting the plethora of illegalities and the lack of transparency
in the sector, the Court directed authorities to i) subject cash
buyers and agents to stricter scrutiny, including a detailed
recording of their particulars, and to hold them accountable to
the strictest sanctions; ii) regulate the import of vessels
registered under "last voyage" grey- or black-listed flags which
are particularly popular with cash buyers, including Comoros,
Palau and St. Kits and Nevis, and; iii) ensure that no vessel is
imported without proper verifiable pre-cleaning certificates and
declarations of in-built hazardous wastes, and/or by yards that
do not fully comply with the requirements for obtaining an
Environmental Clearance.
Nov 19, 2019
