Every industry has its own jargon, and reading stories about shipbreaking without a good glossary can be challenging. Here are the most relevant terms to follow our reporting:

Ship recycling is not a Wild West territory - at least, in principle, the economic activity is regulated by a number of international treaties and rules. A brief overview.

According to the UN Conference for Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Switzerland ranks 20th in the world in terms of the number of ships owned, but 15th in terms of the number of ships scrapped on beaches. “The percentage of Swiss ships that ended up on the beach is almost 100%. That puts Switzerland in the top 10 of global dumpers,” said ...

The Science for Environment Policy (European Commission) provided an overview of several studies, one of which clearly showed just how heavily the Alang-Sosiya natural environment has been polluted by copper, cobalt, manganese, lead, cadmium, nickel, zinc and mercury. Warning: reading this can damage your profit margins.

Baskut Tuncak is, UN Special Rapporteur on hazardous substances and wastes: “In shipbreaking yards, workers often are exposed to toxic chemicals including asbestos, dusts and fibres, highly toxic industrial chemicals which have been banned for decades but are still present in ships, as well as lead, mercury, arsenic or cadmium in paints, coat ...

The road to Alang is lined with shops and warehouses selling items that once used to sail across the world’s oceans. Oak desks, faux crystal chandeliers, life vests and boats, ropes, electric cables and switches, leather chairs, paintings and reproductions, giant generators and motors – you name it. It is ship recycling in its most lite ...

“Shipbreaking is amongst the most dangerous of occupations, with unacceptably high levels of fatalities, injuries and work-related diseases”, the ILO warned in 2015. I went to Alang and sat down with the father of a worker who just died on the yard.  

In Matteo Salvini’s Italy, where ports are closed for ships that recover migrants dispersed in the sea, a football team offers a new perspective to refugees from Africa. They share the dream of being able to play football while sharing the same tragic experiences, risking their lives on precarious boats, as well as in the prsion camps of Libya.&nbs ...

8 year old Luca of Leuven should have been at school at this hour. Instead, he is walking along a narrow dirt road leading to Monseigneur Ladeuzeplein. With a placard held firmly in his tiny hands that reads ‘There is no Planet B.’

After spending eight years of solitary confinement in an 8f x 10f death cell, Asia Bibi (51) has been declared innocent. She was released from jail after a three-member Supreme Court bench cleared her of all the charges of blasphemy on October 31, 2018 and a review petition was categorically dismissed on January 29, 2019.

When big multinational shipping companies opt for shipbreaking on South Asian beaches in order to maximize profits, one can be outraged, but will not be surprised. But what should we make of the news that Greenpeace’s iconic Rainbow Warrior II ended up on a beach in Bangladesh for scrapping?

On October 3th 2016, Sachs, who collects honorary doctorates and other titles as if they were panini stickers, visited Ghent University for the third Mandela lecture organised by the Africa Platform of the Ghent University Association, and moderated by Prof. Eva Brems. This interview was conducted on that occasion.