EUROPE

Unscrupulous shipping companies - most of them based in Europe, the US and East Asia - exploit minimal enforcement of environmental and safety rules on the South Asian beaches to maximise profits. They sell their vessel to scrap dealers, better known as cash buyers, who bring the vessels to their final destination. The cash buyers pay the highest price for end-of-life vessels and are inherently linked to the beaching yards. Cash buyers change the flags of the ships to black-listed flags of convenience and re-register the vessels under new names and anonymous post box companies. These practices render it very difficult for authorities to trace and hold cash buyers - and the ship owners that sell to these scrap dealers - accountable for illicit practices.