Nine workers died on Friday after toxic gas swept through a shipbreaking yard in Sitakunda, the latest deaths in an industry where poisonous fumes, explosions and unsafe working conditions have killed workers for decades.
The workers were dismantling a vessel at Ferdous Steel in Bhatiary when they were overcome by toxic gas. The Fire Service said the ship had previously carried liquefied natural gas and should have been made gas-free before cutting began.
Md Mahiuddin, a representative of the yard owner, told Prothom Alo newspaper that the workers were exposed because of their own “carelessness”. But decades of accident records point to a persistent pattern of hazardous working conditions, inadequate supervision and weak enforcement across Bangladesh’s shipbreaking industry.
Data from the Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies, or BILS, show that at least 137 workers were killed and 205 injured in accidents at Sitakunda shipbreaking yards between 2015 and 2024. The deadliest year was 2019, when 23 workers were killed.
The toll stretches much further back.
Data from the Young Power in Social Action, or YPSA, cited in the 2015 study A Risk Assessment Tool for the Ship Recycling Industry, recorded more than 90 worker deaths in Bangladesh’s ship-recycling industry between 2005 and 2011.
A 2017 report by Helal Ahammad and Mohammad Sujauddin of North South University, prepared for the IMO-NORAD SENSREC project, cited earlier YPSA estimates that roughly 400 workers had been killed in the industry over the preceding two decades.
Toxic gas has repeatedly figured in those deaths. Workers have been killed after entering tanks and other confined spaces containing poisonous fumes, while gas-related explosions have caused multiple fatalities.
Recent BILS figures suggest the risks are intensifying rather than receding.
The organisation recorded 28 workplace accidents in the first six months of 2026, up from 15 during the same period in 2025 — an increase of nearly 87%. Three workers were killed and 25 injured, 10 of them seriously.
April recorded the largest number of accidents. Of the 28 incidents, 21 occurred during daytime operations and seven at night. Cutters, cutter helpers, crane helpers, wire-group workers, fitters and loading crews were among those most exposed.
Gas and fire incidents, falling heavy objects and accidents involving cranes, hooks and wires together accounted for nearly 80% of all accidents.
BILS blamed unsafe work practices, hazardous working conditions, inadequate personal protective equipment, weak supervision and insufficient safety training. It has called for mandatory gas testing before work begins, permit-to-work systems, proper protective equipment and regular emergency drills.
Those findings echo a 2023 Human Rights Watch investigation into Bangladesh’s shipbreaking industry. Workers told researchers they were frequently given inadequate protective equipment, training and tools. Some said they resorted to wrapping their shirts around their mouths while working amid toxic fumes.
Human Rights Watch found workers were particularly vulnerable inside confined spaces, where hazardous or flammable substances were not always properly identified before dismantling began.
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