SAVAR: Thousands of Bangladeshis held emotional and violent protests on the one-year anniversary of the world’s worst garment factory disaster, as Western retailers faced pressure to hike aid for victims of the accident that cost 1,138 lives.
Angry victims, some wearing funeral shrouds, staged demonstrations at the site of the now-infamous Rana Plaza factory complex, which collapsed last April 24 after a catastrophic structural failure.
Chanting “We want compensation!” and “Death to Sohel Rana!” the owner of the shoddy building, the demonstrators -- who included injured survivors and families of the deceased -- marched to the ruins of the nine-storey building outside Dhaka carrying flowers and wreaths.
Relatives of the 140 workers still unaccounted for also joined in, calling on the government to help find their bodies. They included toddlers, holding photos of their missing mothers.
“I want my daughter’s dead body. At least it would give us some consolation,” said crying mother Minu Begum, clutching a photo of her missing daughter Sumi Begum, who worked at one of Rana Plaza’s five factories.
For the first time since the disaster, when the site was sealed off, relatives of the dead and survivors were allowed inside. Some fell to the ground, sobbing and grabbing handfuls of dirt, while others prayed.
Violent protests broke out in the capital where police fired tear gas at some 2,000 brick-throwing demonstrators demanding higher wages and compensation outside a small garment factory hub.
“More than 20 garment factories were forced to shut down for the day fearing unrest,” local police chief Moshiur Rahman said.
Global labour and rights groups marked the day by criticising the Western retailers linked to the disaster, which include Spanish brand Mango, Italian brand Benetton and French retailer Auchan. “Brands are failing workers a second time,” said Ineke Zeldenrust from the Amsterdam-based Clean Clothes Campaign.
“First they failed to ensure the factories they bought from were safe, and now they are failing the survivors and the families of those who lost loved ones.”
More than 2,000 people were injured in a tragedy that highlighted the lax safety standards and often abusive working conditions in the world’s second-biggest clothing producer.
The disaster shamed Western brands into launching new safety inspections and pushed Bangladesh’s government to increase wages and ensure the better enforcement of regulations.
But trade union group IndustriALL slammed retailers this week for making “woefully inadequate” contributions to a proposed $40m fund set up to compensate the families of the dead and the injured. AFP
