Death Toll from Factory Collapse in Bangladesh Continues to Rise
May 6, 2013
The number of people killed in the collapse of an eight-story building in Bangladesh has grown from more than 100 to at least 650. The building, which housed multiple garment factories and thousands of workers, collapsed on April 24 in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka. More than 1,000 of the estimated 3,000 people working in the industrial loft were injured. Authorities stated that the number of people confirmed as dead was 433, with 149 people still missing, likely still trapped under the rubble.
Women working in an apparel factory in Dhaka. (© Liba Taylor, Panos Pictures)
Initial reports stated that the owners of the five factories in the building ignored a police order on April 23 to evacuate after deep cracks in the walls were detected. Later reports stated that the building’s owner, Mohammed Sohel Rana, had told tenants the building was still safe. Rana, now perhaps the most hated man in Bangladesh, had been on the run after the tragedy, but he was found near the Indian border and helicoptered back to Dhaka. He has been arrested and is expected to be charged with negligence and illegal construction—Rana had no permit to add the top three floors to the structure.
Clothing is the leading export for Bangladesh—apparel exports in 2012 totaled around $18 billion. Bangladesh is second only to China in apparel exports. Many of the clothing exports from Bangladesh are for western retailers, including Walmart and Gap. Costs of manufacturing garments in Bangladesh are dramatically lower, but western companies can become associated with tragedies like the one in Dhaka last week and sully their reputation.
The lower costs of garments made in Bangladesh is directly related to labor. Bangladesh has some of the lowest wages in the world. When the newly elected pope, Francis, learned this week that many of the workers in Bangladesh earn only about $40 a month, he claimed “This is slave labor.” In addition to low wages, the country has very lax regulations for working conditions. Six month before the factory collapse, more than 100 people died in a fire that swept through a garment factory in Dhaka.
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