Two deadly fires in the span of a week in Bangladesh, one at a food processing factory and another at a juice factory, highlight the need for fire and building safety in Bangladesh. Another factory fire took place at a clothing factory in Gazipur in August, just weeks before the expiry of the Bangladesh Accord. These follow other high profile tragedies like the Tazreen factory fire and the collapse of the Rana Plaza factory, and a series of smaller-scale fires, which together have claimed thousands of lives over the last decade in Bangladesh.

The International Labour Organization said in a 2017 report that Bangladesh’s regulatory framework and inspections “had not been able to keep pace with the development of the industry”. Recently, labour rights organisations have called to renew and extend the Bangladesh Accord to protect the progress made thus far, and ensure legal accountability of global brands sourcing from Bangladesh.

Additionally, the IUF and ITUC Bangladesh Council are calling for an independent public inquiry that covers the following areas:

• the criminal negligence of the factory owner that created the deadly working conditions;
• how the company could ignore health, safety and fire regulations;
• why no factory inspection had identified the lethal work environment; and
• the prevalence of child labour in the factory, in violation of ILO Convention 138 and the Fundamental Principles of Rights at Work.