May 20, 2015

Government officials from three Southeast Asian countries—Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand—met today in Malaysia’s capital, Kuala Lumpur, and agreed to stop turning away migrant ships from their coasts. At least 3,500 migrants from Bangladesh and Myanmar have come ashore in one of the three nations over the last few weeks, but some 7,000 more migrants are thought to be still adrift at sea. The migrants are in distress from their long journeys and many of them are dehydrated and malnourished.

Migrants wait to be rescued by fishermen off the coast of Aceh, Indonesia, May 20, 2015. Hundreds of migrants stranded at sea for months were rescued and taken to Indonesia, officials reported, the latest in a stream of Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrants to reach shore in a growing crisis confronting Southeast Asia. Credit: AP Photo

Refugees from Bangladesh are mostly economic migrants seeking jobs. The migrants from Myanmar, however, are Rohingya Muslims, a group that has long been persecuted in Myanmar. Rohingya, even those from families who have lived in Myanmar for generations, are denied citizenship in the predominantly Buddhist nation and have few rights there.

The current migrant boat crisis in Southeast Asia began a few weeks ago. Previously, migrants from Bangladesh and Myanmar had traveled by sea to Thailand and then overland. Thailand recently cracked down on this overland traffic, and now smugglers are sending migrants exclusively on sea routes. Often these human traffickers abandon the migrants if a ship founders. Navies from Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand have been turning away the boat people at their shores and have sometimes towed stricken boats to the shores of other nations.

The agreement to permit migrants to enter the host nations by sea solves a humanitarian crisis in the short run. Eventually, however, the solution lies in helping Bangladesh to become more economically sound and pressuring Myanmar to recognize and stop persecuting the Rohingya population living in its borders.

Other World Book articles:

• Immigration

• Myanmar (2014-a Back in time article)

May 9, 2013

Another tragedy struck the garment district of the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka last night.  Eight people were holding an after-hours meeting in a garment factory when a fire broke out. All eight people died in the fire, having been overcome by toxic smoke from burning acrylic fabric.

Garment workers at a factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh (© Liba Taylor, Panos Pictures)

Fabric and the lint it creates are both highly flammable. A fire in a garment factory has a tremendous amount of fuel and can burn through the structure very quickly.  Such fires are even more deadly when unsafe industrial practices are followed. Escape doors are often locked to prevent young workers from leaving the factory, or stairways are blocked with garments.  Such was the case in the deadly fire that killed 112 Bangladeshi workers in 2012.  Similar problems led to the deaths of 260 Pakistani workers in factory fires in Karachi and Lahore in 2012.

The latest fire in Bangladesh comes as bodies are still being recovered from the collapse of an eight-story garment factory in Dhaka. The collapse, on April 24, occurred in a factory loft that had had three illegal stories added to a five-story building. The day before the building collapsed, large cracks appeared in the structure. The owner and manager opened the factory the next day despite these structural problems. When large generators came on during a power outage at the factory, the vibration caused the factory to collapse. Two weeks later, the death count from the factory has risen to more than 900 people, making the Dhaka collapse the most deadly accident to ever occur in the garment-trade industry.

Since the collapse, the Bangladeshi government has closed 18 garment factories for failing to meet work and safety standards. The country pledged to inspect every factory in Bangladesh as part of a safety initiative. Much of the clothing made in Bangladesh is exported to Western Europe and North America, so Western brands that were manufacturing their clothing in Bangladesh are feeling pressure to become more active concerning industrial safety on behalf of the workers who make their fashion.

Other World Book Articles:

• Bangladesh 2012 (Back in Time article)
• International trade
• Safety
• Sweatshop
• Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

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.

Additional World Book articles:

• Labor movement

• Sweatshop