Have you ever
wondered where would all the super tankers and ocean liners end up eventually?
They all end up in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Turkey.
Because of one
photo I saw in the May 2014 issue of National Geographic magazine, I make
myself here in the industrial town of Bhatiary where tens of thousands of ships,
from country boats to super tankers and ocean liners, moored ashore waiting to
be dismantled. It is surreal and spectacular indeed.
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| (National Geographic Magazine photo) |
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| (National Geographic Magazine photo) |
Chittagong is
home to the world’s second largest ship breaking yard in the world.
It has been a
highly controversial issue here as child labors have purportedly been used extensively to
break the ship, piece by piece, where they will be recycled to manufacture steel
and rebars for the construction industry. The industry has received extensive coverage followed by brickbat in the press in the past over the possible child abuse and violation of human right.
It is this
very same reason that makes visiting the yards now even more difficult, let
alone photographing it.
Having said
that, I still wanted to try my luck. So I took a local bus to the town of
Bhatiary and started to wander around the neighborhood on foot. I went to a few ship
breaking yards. Expectedly, none of
them granted me a visit. In fact, they have been very wary of visitors like me.
The guards would spot you from afar and the next moment you see is they quickly
braced themselves and shut their main gate right away. It is not possible to
even peep into it as the entire yard is surrounded by high wall with barbed wires.
Too bad I have
no photos to show you here except some I took on the road.
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| Some lifeboats stranded on river bank waiting to be recycled (Check out the one from Kuching!) |
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| Some lifeboats can be traced as far as Panama |
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