Gadani is the world's third biggest shipbreaking hub. But many ships come there illegally from Europe, the Middle East, and China. We went to Pakistan to figure out why international laws are being ignored.
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00:00This is where some of the largest ships in the world come to die, the Ghadani Yard in Pakistan.
00:12But the place is also a death trap for the hundreds of men who work to break down
00:18these rusted giants for as little as four dollars a day.
00:22Some of these vessels are here illegally, like the cruise ship Antares Experience,
00:34which came from Greece. International laws ban many foreign countries from dumping their
00:41toxic old ships on the beaches of developing countries for environmental reasons. Still,
00:47loopholes allow these giants to come here from China, the Middle East and Europe
00:52through indirect routes. Shipping companies deliberately lie to authorities. They do not
00:59disclose that their true intention is to scrap these ships in the worst possible yards located
01:07on the beaches of South Asia. Meanwhile, most workers here come from far-off villages
01:14and have never even seen the ocean or a ship before.
01:18So why are these vessels ending up on the shores of Pakistan?
01:23And who is responsible for the safety of these underpaid workers
01:27propping up a billion-dollar recycling industry?
01:30This 85,000-ton Greek carrier supplied coal around the world. But after sailing for 21 years,
01:40the Enterprise Majuro is falling apart. At 150 feet tall and 900 feet long, this beast
01:49will take a fleet of 200 workers a day to clean up the wreckage.
01:54And 900 feet long, this beast will take a fleet of 200 workers about three months to fillet for
02:01its parts. Many of them live right on the yard, like Azam Khan, who moved here from northern Pakistan.
02:10These huts belong to the boss of this ship lot. And the men live here rent-free as long as they
02:17work six days a week and don't go outside past 8pm. No one here has clean running water. And they all
02:27share a communal bathroom. And no one here has clean running water. And they all share a communal
02:39bathroom.
02:52Azam bandages his shoes for extra protection.
03:09Azam's main job is to break up smaller parts once they've been separated from the rods that hold the
03:15body of the ship.
03:17Gadani gets mostly cargo carriers, oil tankers, and cruise liners.
03:23Like this 1994 Carnival Fascination.
03:29Gadani gets mostly cargo carriers, oil tankers, and cruise liners.
03:35Like this 1994 Carnival Fascination.
03:37Like this 1994 Carnival Fascination.
03:49Like this 1994 Carnival Fascination.
03:51became outdated.
03:54The ship was sold to a Chinese cruise company,
03:56which soon decided to sell it for scrap.
04:01To break down vessels here,
04:03workers use what's called the gravity method.
04:06They mostly let the parts fall on their own.
04:14But that's how accidents can happen,
04:16says Mohammad Ashraf,
04:17who has worked here for half his life.
04:21It's dangerous.
04:23You can die on the road, but you can't die on the ship.
04:34Tractors drag the larger parts to shore,
04:38where workers break them down.
04:43Ashraf has to take apart this entire chamber.
04:52In the water, the electric current
04:54could kill him in an instant.
04:58Most ships don't make it past the age of 30.
05:01Their insides begin to rust.
05:06Many contain poisonous chemicals like asbestos,
05:09residual oil, and toxic paint.
05:13And breathing the dust
05:15can cause permanent lung damage or death.
05:18Nearly 2,000 people have been severely injured
05:22or killed on this beach since the late 1960s.
05:26But that number is likely much higher.
05:30Many workers disappear or drown under falling parts,
05:34and their deaths often don't get tracked.
05:38An international law enacted in 1992
05:42technically requires countries to document
05:44all toxic waste in the ocean.
05:48But experts say this is often ignored.
06:19Shipbreaking became a big business in Pakistan
06:21in the 1980s,
06:23after Europe began regulating ship waste pollution
06:26on its own shores.
06:28That's when many developed nations
06:30started sending their vessels off to countries
06:32with lax environmental regulations and cheap labor.
06:36The industry grew across South Asia,
06:39with yards expanding rapidly
06:41in Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh.
06:48In the late 80s and 90s,
06:50reports of accidents, poor work conditions,
06:53and child labor started to come out,
06:57triggering a wave of international laws
06:59that tried to regulate the business.
07:02Nowadays, developed countries aren't technically allowed
07:05to send their ships to places that don't have
07:07the same environmental standards and labor laws.
07:11But it happens anyway.
07:14Like with the Antares experience,
07:16which came from Greece illegally.
07:19We reached out to the ship's
07:20most recent recorded owners and operators,
07:23but did not get a response.
07:26But the most common paths are legal loopholes.
07:29For example, a European shipping company
07:32could get away with sending its vessel
07:34for scrapping to Pakistan
07:36if it first sends it to another country
07:38that's allowed to export it there.
07:41Another way to get around the law
07:43is by registering a ship under countries
07:46with lax regulations known as flags of convenience.
07:51Like the Enterprise, which was owned by a Greek company,
07:54but registered under the Marshall Islands,
07:57a country known for its low taxes.
08:00Reports of the ships beached in Ghani in 2023 and 2024
08:04show that most were registered
08:06under other flags of convenience,
08:09like Comoros, St. Kitts and Nevis, and Panama,
08:12but were usually owned by companies in China
08:15the Middle East, and Greece.
08:2944-year-old Javed Iqbal sorts the parts Ashraf Qatsa.
08:41But like most here,
08:42he doesn't have a license to handle the screen.
08:46He says no one's ever asked for it.
08:57Javed moved here 25 years ago.
09:00He sees his wife and three children once a year
09:03if he can afford time off.
09:16Crane operators like Javed are among the best paid on the lot.
09:20But many workers here usually make about $4 a day,
09:24less than the $6 minimum wage in Pakistan,
09:27which buys two gallons of milk there.
09:31Despite attempts to regulate the business,
09:33cheap labor and pollution are still a problem
09:36in yards across South Asia.
09:39But the Aliaga yard in Turkey says it's different,
09:42and that it's developed a recycling infrastructure
09:45designed to handle toxic waste.
09:47That's partly why it's become
09:49one of the most popular destinations for Europe's old ships.
09:53But reports show that Aliaga is heavily polluted
09:57with toxic substances.
09:59Now there's a new law, the Hong Kong Convention,
10:03which is set to take effect in June 2025.
10:06On paper, it aims to make more parties,
10:09from the ship's owner, to its flag state,
10:12to the country that recycles it,
10:14responsible for safely disposing of it.
10:17The agreement requires every arriving ship
10:20to have an inventory of its hazardous waste
10:23and a clear plan for how to handle it.
10:26Before accepting a vessel,
10:28each yard needs to submit a recycling plan to its government
10:32and provide proof that they can do this
10:35without contaminating the environment
10:37or compromising workers' safety.
10:40India, Bangladesh and Turkey have all signed the treaty
10:44and have begun updating their yards.
10:47Pakistan was the last major ship-breaking country
10:51to sign the convention,
10:52and it's done little to modernize its practices.
10:55Pakistan is one of the worst destinations
10:59for end-of-life vessels.
11:01And experts say the new law may not change much.
11:06It was crafted by the shipping industry itself,
11:09and it's like putting the fox in charge
11:12of managing the chickens.
11:15If a convention will not be enforced properly
11:18and interpreted in a strict way,
11:21it will simply rubber-stamp current substandard practices.
11:25It will greenwash the whole sector.
11:28What today is illegal and unethical
11:32will suddenly become legal and okay.
11:37And people who have worked here their whole lives
11:40worry about that, too.
11:57Azam had other family members who worked here, too.
12:02But in 2016, an old oil tanker exploded
12:06while it was getting broken down.
12:08The blast claimed the lives of at least 29 men.
12:12Azam's relatives were among them.
12:15The explosion left another 60 people
12:17severely burned or disabled for life.
12:22Workers we spoke with said since the incident,
12:25their employers have first aid and ambulances on standby.
12:30The closest hospital is about six miles away,
12:33but it isn't equipped to handle serious cases.
12:36The badly injured have to travel one hour to Karachi.
12:46We couldn't reach the manager of the lot
12:48Azam Khan works on, but we spoke with the chairman
12:51of the Pakistan Shipbreakers Association.
12:54He also runs a ship lot here.
13:00What happened was that about 20 to 21 lakh rupees
13:03of compensation was given to the workers.
13:15That's about $750 paid to the family of a worker
13:20who died on the job.
13:21But activists say that families are often not notified
13:25since many workers don't have proof of employment.
13:28Farooqui says that's not true.
13:52Gadoni is divided into 132 lots.
13:56Some are owned by private landowners
13:58and others by the government,
14:00which leases the lots to private companies.
14:03But these days, many are vacant
14:05because getting a ship to Pakistan has gotten so expensive.
14:09For example, the folks who bought the Enterprise Majuro
14:12from its Greek owners paid about $10 million for it.
14:17Then they had to pay a 17% customs tax
14:20to the Pakistani government.
14:22And another 17% tax on all the parts of the ship
14:25that were resellable.
14:27There's also a 1% regional tax in Gadoni.
14:31All this adds up to roughly $13.5 million.
14:36It's unclear if lot owners actually pay all the taxes.
14:40Many have been accused of exploiting government connections
14:43to skirt regulations.
14:45But shipyard owners say getting these vessels here
14:48ultimately helps the workers too.
14:53Once a ship is broken apart,
14:55workers salvage everything from desks and cabinets,
14:59which can be resold as wood scraps,
15:01down to the screws and cables
15:03that once held all the ship's parts together.
15:22In fact, up to 95% of a ship's remains can return a profit.
15:28A ship's steel hull is among the most prized of its parts.
15:32The manager of this ship lot can resell it to metal mills
15:36for millions of dollars.
15:41The Gadoni shipyard salvages
15:43about 1.5 million tons of steel a year.
15:46And it's not just the steel.
15:48The shipyard salvages about 1.5 million tons of steel a year,
15:53accounting for 20% of all the steel Pakistan uses.
15:58It takes about 400 trucks
16:00to move just one ship's remains to their next destination.
16:05This truck is off to a factory in Lahore.
16:18Then, they sort the scrap into piles,
16:21depending on the shape and type of metal.
16:27Workers cut the ship walls into rectangles
16:29to fit this slicing machine.
16:49This crew got here at 4.30 a.m.,
16:52and they won't finish until 8 p.m.
16:5716-hour shifts are standard here.
17:04These links were once part of a chain used to anchor a ship.
17:10Workers have to heat this to over 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit
17:15Workers have to heat this to over 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit
17:19to make the links easier to reshape.
17:22That process emits toxic vapors,
17:25which could permanently scar a worker's lungs.
17:39At this factory, they usually repurpose
17:42about 10 to 15 tons of scrap a day,
17:46which helps reduce the nation's demand for mining new steel.
17:53Most of the repurposed metal ends up at construction sites
17:56across Pakistan, where it's used to build bridges,
17:59roads, and buildings.
18:04Every year, about 1,000 ships need to find
18:07their final resting place,
18:09where they'll get scrapped and recycled.
18:12Azam isn't sure how many more he'll break down
18:15within his lifetime.
18:17But he says he knows that one day,
18:20this beach will become his graveyard, too.
18:42If you spend the rest of your life here,
18:45you'll regret it for sure.