Gas Cylinder Blast Kills Three More Ship Breakers in Chittagong

Three men died on October 20 after a gas cylinder they were cutting at a Chittagong shipbreaking yard in Bangladesh exploded, according to the NGO Shipbreaking Platform.

This latest accident took place in S. R. Corporation, one of the major shipbreaking companies in Bangladesh. The three injured workers were sent to the nearby hospital for treatment but doctors could not save their lives as they were all severely burned, according to the NGO Shipbreaking Platform.

The names of the workers who died were Rusel, Kairul and Aminul. All three were employed as gas cutters.

IndustriALL Global Union, a global union federation, has called for the shipbreaking industry to be cleaned up, as this has been the second accident with fatal outcome in Chittagong in the last two months. Back in September, four workers were killed and four were seriously injured following a gas cylinder explosion in the Shital Shipbreaking yard.

IndustriALL director for the shipbuilding and shipbreaking sector, Kan Matsuzaki, said: ”Every occupational death is avoidable. And every time a shipbreaking worker is killed at work it strengthens our resolve to campaign for the ratification of the Hong Kong Convention. When we succeed in making that resolution a reality the lives of workers in the world’s most dangerous job will change.”