As a maritime power, Switzerland has a responsibility when it comes to shipbreaking

The Swiss flag aims to become more attractive in the maritime shipping sector. Consequently, Switzerland must also ensure that regulations protecting workers and the environment are implemented, writes Kathrin Betz.

Around 90% of global trade is carried out by sea. According to UN figures, there are currently around 112,500 merchant vessels sailing the oceans, transporting goods such as crude oil, bulk cargo and foodstuffs. Switzerland plays a significant role in this sector with the world’s largest container shipping company, the Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), based in Geneva – but that is not all.

While only a few seagoing vessels today fly the Swiss flag, according to official figures around 900 ships are operated by shipping companies based in Switzerland. The NGO Public Eye also includes vessels owned by commodity traders based in Switzerland and arrives at a figure of around 3,600 ships controlled by Swiss companies.

Switzerland – a global shipping centre

Shipping companies are often not the owners of the vessels they operate but have assumed responsibility for their operation from the owner. The formal owners are usually domicile companies based in Hong Kong, Panama or other low-tax territories. Overall, it can be said that Switzerland is an important shipping centre not only from a European perspective, but also from a global one.

It therefore makes sense that Switzerland has drawn up a maritime strategy at federal level which, on the one hand, recognises the importance of the maritime economy for Switzerland and, on the other, acknowledges that marine resources and ecosystems must be better protected. The state of the oceans is a decisive factor for the global climate. Switzerland’s maritime strategy also advocates for improved working conditions for seafarers, some of which are inhumane.

One aim of the maritime strategy is to make the Swiss flag more attractive in the maritime shipping sector. For a ship to fly the Swiss flag, it must be registered in Switzerland. International maritime law permits open registers, also known as “flags of convenience”. This means that the shipowner does not have to be based in the country where they register their ship. Today, a large proportion of cargo vessels – including those operated by Swiss companies – are listed in an open register. Thousands of ships sail under the flags of Liberia, Panama or the Marshall Islands.

Human and environmental costs

An important issue in the maritime industry is shipbreaking. After around 25 to 30 years, cargo ships reach the end of their service life and must be scrapped. Every year, hundreds of ships are scrapped and their steel recycled. This is not easy given their size: the largest ships are around 400 metres long and 60 metres wide. Today, scrapping predominantly takes place on tidal beaches in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, where small and medium-sized shipyards line up for kilometres.

The process is rudimentary: at high tide, the ships are driven at full speed onto the beach, where they are left to lie. Migrant workers, often without adequate protective equipment or training, cut the ships apart using oxy-acetylene torches. This work is dangerous: explosions, fires, falling metal parts and contact with toxic substances regularly lead to serious injuries and fatalities. Medical care is usually inadequate.

The environmental damage is severe. Older ships in particular may contain large quantities of asbestos, harmful PCBs, heavy metals, chemical or oil residues in their structure, in fuel and lubricants, as cargo residue or in the ship’s hull. Unmanaged, these materials make their way into the seabed and the surrounding coastal waters.

Shirking responsibilities

Shipowners who profit from operating a vessel often fail to take responsibility for ensuring a humane and environmentally safe shipbreaking. Instead, they prefer to sell a ship at the end of its life, for its final journey to the scrapyard, via shell companies to cash buyers who are in contact with the scrapyards. The ships are renamed and given an end-of-life flag of convenience. In this way, shipowners circumvent existing regulations.

This practice is advantageous from the perspective of profit maximisation. Even ships only fit for scrap consist largely of valuable steel. The price for a tonne of scrap ship steel is highest where working conditions and environmental protection are at their worst. There are shipbreaking yards that invest in training, protective equipment and the construction of concrete piers, but they can afford to pay shipowners less per tonne of ship steel.

This problem is internationally recognised. The Hong Kong ConventionExternal link came into force in June 2025. It requires the creation of an inventory of hazardous substances for every ship from the start of construction and throughout its operational life, which must be handed over to the shipyard on scrapping. The flag state is responsible for verifying the inventory. The recycling state approves the shipbreaking yards’ plans for the safe and environmentally friendly dismantling of ships and ensures the authorisation and supervision of the yards.

Switzerland and Hong Kong Convention

However, the Hong Kong Convention contains loopholes and continues to permit shipbreaking on tidal beaches. It can only take full effect if shipbuilding yards, shipping companies, shipbreaking yards, flag states and shipbreaking states carry out their respective duties and checks properly. In practice, these activities are often outsourced. It is therefore highly questionable whether this system can effectively protect workers and the environment.

Switzerland has not yet ratified the Hong Kong Convention. In response to parliamentary motions on shipbreaking tabled by the Swiss Green Party politician Lisa Mazzone, the government adopted the position in 2019 that Switzerland had no responsibility for ships flying foreign flags and indicated that accession to the Hong Kong Convention would be reviewed once a larger number of key maritime states had ratified it. This status quo continues in 2026.

In addition to the Hong Kong Convention, Swiss criminal and environmental law applies if a ship is operated from Switzerland but does not fly the Swiss flag. If a Swiss shipping company knowingly and verifiably decides to have a ship scrapped abroad at a dangerous shipyard that does not provide sufficient worker protection, then, in the event of a serious workplace accident, it would need to be examined from a criminal law perspective whether Switzerland has jurisdiction and whether employees or senior managers of the shipping company, or the company itself, could be liable for bodily harm or homicide.

Environmental law deals with hazardous waste, which includes, for example, waste containing asbestos or PCBs, found particularly in the structures of older ships. The movement of hazardous waste between third countries, arranged by companies in Switzerland or in which such companies are involved, is subject to a reporting obligation, and failure to do so carries a penalty.

Worker and environmental protection

Although a legal framework already exists, no cases are yet known in Switzerland in which shipowners have been held legally accountable in connection with shipbreaking on tidal beaches – unlike in other European countries.

Switzerland is an important shipping centre and, through its maritime strategy, aims to strengthen its position in the maritime economy. However, this also requires a functioning legal framework, particularly when it comes to the scrapping of ships owned by shipping companies based here. Switzerland should therefore ensure that rules protecting workers and the environment are enforced and, where necessary, improved, so that they cannot be bypassed.

The views expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect those of Swissinfo.

Edited by Benjamin von Wyl. Adapted from German by Katherine Price/ac.