December 29th, 2005

Two activists protesting against the scrapping of an asbestos contaminated ship plan to spend the night on the vessel according to their organization. The protestors had boarded the decommissioned French vessel because plans had been made to send it to India in order to get it scrapped. The activists on board are from the organization Greenpeace.

It is reported that there were originally three protesters that boarded the vessel. However, one of the activists and the other two remained on the ship. The activists used small boats to get to the ship and board it, and went on to climb the vessel’s radar. Greenpeace confirmed that the two remaining activists were ‘getting ready to spend the night’.

Four additional protesters had already climbed up a dockyard crane earlier and were arrested. As the third protester climbed off the vessel, he was also arrested. A banner that was held by the protesters on the dockyard crane read: "Asbestos carrier: not here, nor elsewhere".

The protest was arranged in order to highlight the dangers of asbestos and the contaminated vessel, according to Greenpeace. The organization wants the government in France to arrange the scrapping of the vessel themselves instead of having it sent to India to be done.