Flags of Connivance
With so many ships from OECD countries beaching at Alang, why is Le Clemenceau hogging all the limelight? "It is a clear legal situation of a ship being transferred from one government (and OECD country) to another government (a non-OECD one),' says Ravi Aggarwal, director of Toxics Link, an NGO in Delhi that researches and campaigns on issues of hazardous wastes.
For all the remaining ships, there's an easy way out: flags of convenience.
The Alang ship log has some striking fact. From January 2004 to November 2005, the yard received 40 ships flying the flag of Panama (population: 3.1 million) and 37 from St Vincent and the Grenadines (population: 117,000)