A current surge of deadly accidents at shipbreaking yards in Bangladesh has labor and human rights teams calling for measures to boost security for employees and the tip to the harmful follow of ship beaching altogether.

The NGO Shipbreaking Platform reviews that within the final month alone at the very least 5 employees have been killed and at the very least 5 others have suffered severe accidents in a collection of accidents in Chittagong, Bangladesh, the epicenter of the nation’s controversial shipbreaking trade.

“This horrific series of accidents shows that occupational health and safety measures are absent”, says Muhammed Ali Shahin, the Platform’s native coordinator. “We are witnessing the same accidents again and again: workers are not equipped with safety harnesses and fall to their death. Others are crushed under heavy steel parts as a consequence of the dangerous gravity method by which cut steel sections are simply dropped into the sea and on the beach. Gas cylinders cannot be handled safely on the beach and explosions cause death and terrible burn wounds. As long as ships are scrapped on the beaches, workers will continue to die.”

As a results of the accidents, the NGO Shipbreaking Platform, a coalition of 19 environmental, human rights and labour rights organizations, is asking on Government of Bangladesh to analyze the incidents and sanction yards with extra common deadly and extreme accidents. The Platform can also be demanding that European ship house owners cease promoting their end-of-life vessels to the beaching yards of Bangladesh.

“It is not acceptable to turn a blind eye on the precarious situation for the sake of maximum profit – European ship owners are fully aware of the dire conditions in Chittagong and more sustainable alternatives to the beaching method exist,” an announcement from the NGO Shipbreaking Platform mentioned.