A new investigation from Reporters United reveals, according to the NGO Shipbreaking Platform, how the tanker Trader III, linked to companies controlled by the Greek shipowner and media mogul Vangelis Marinakis, was sold for scrapping on a beach in Bangladesh in violation of EU rules.
The ship left Turkey in January and was beached on March 15, 2025, at the KR Ship Recycling Industries yard in Chattogram, Bangladesh – one of the world’s most dangerous workplaces. According to the investigation, the sale was conducted via Global Marketing Systems (GMS), the world’s largest buyer of end-of-life ships, which is often criticized for exploiting the lack of control in South Asia.
According to a press release from Shipbreaking Platform, the journalists also document that Greek authorities have turned a blind eye to the legal violations. Greece’s Secretary General for the Environment, Petros Varelidis, publicly stated that the country does not enforce the rules for the export of end-of-life ships – and called the EU’s monitoring units “low-ranking bureaucrats”.
According to EU legislation, the export of end-of-life EU ships to non-OECD countries is prohibited, and only approved recycling facilities may be used – a list that does not include the shipbreaking yards on the beaches of Bangladesh.
The environmental organization Shipbreaking Platform is now calling on Greek prosecutors to initiate an investigation into the case and demands that the EU respond to Greece’s failure to enforce the Waste Shipment Regulation.
-emte
