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03:51became outdated.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.
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