Another fatal garment factory fire in Bangladesh
Authorities in Bangladesh have confirmed at least 16 fatalities after a fire at a garment factory in mid-October, with other employees still missing.
The fire broke out on October 14 at a factory operated by Arian Fashion in the Shialbari district of Dhaka, close to the Bangladesh University of Business and Technology. Fire service officials said the fire had started in a chemicals warehouse, operated illegally by another company, beside the factory. It took more than 24 hours for firefighters to bring the blaze under control.
Those confirmed to have lost their lives include garment workers aged just 13, local media have reported. Young people are legally permitted to work in Bangladesh from the age of 14 onwards, but employment law stipulates that, until the age of 18, the working day should be no more than five hours long.
Local reports say it is still common for young people who have dropped out of school to take work in garment factories to help their families, sometimes earning as little as $60 per month. The legal minimum wage for garment workers in Bangladesh is just over $100 per month.
Following Bangladesh’s deadliest industrial incident, at Rana Plaza in 2013, which cost the lives of 1,100 garment workers, separate organisations representing European and North American clothing brands set up campaigns to improve safety and conditions for garment workers in Bangladesh.
North America’s Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety committed from the outset to a five-year campaign and published its fifth and final report at the end of 2018.
Its European-dominated counterpart, the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, changed its name to the International Accord in 2021 and continues to campaign for better conditions in Bangladesh, but also in Pakistan and other countries.
Please see separate article for a statement on this latest incident from the International Accord.
