DHAKA: Bangladeshi textile bosses pleaded yesterday with Western clothing giants to keep doing business with them after nearly 400 people died in a factory collapse as hopes of finding more survivors faded.
Organisers of the mammoth rescue effort ordered in cranes yesterday to clear the ruins of what was once an eight-storey factory compound before it caved in five days ago while some 3,000 textile workers were on shift.
As Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina paid her first visit to the tangle of concrete, the confirmed number of dead stood at 382.
But the toll is expected to shoot up now that heavy lifting equipment is being used. Rescuers had earlier been wary of using anything but hand-held drills over fears that machinery could force more masonry to collapse onto survivors.
Emergency workers, who have been toiling amid the stench of rotting corpses, were shattered by the death late on Sunday of a female garment worker who had clung to life against the odds before being overwhelmed by a fire at the scene.
Britain’s Primark and Spain’s Mango have confirmed that their products were made in the block. Italy’s Benetton acknowledged having its clothes made in Rana Plaza recently, but claimed it was a “one-time order”.
Primark yesterday said it would pay compensation to the victims of the disaster, adding that it was working with a local aid agency to help provide emergency food to families.
Worried that Western firms could look elsewhere, manufacturers met representatives of at least 30 leading brand names such as Walmart, H&M and Gap in a bid to assure them about safety standards.
The meeting ended with an announcement that the manufacturers and buyers had agreed to form a joint panel to come up with a firm safety action plan.
AFP
