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Artikel

7 Jul 2021

Autor:
The Guardian

Bangladesh: Factory fires highlight need for improvements in factory safety standards

"Bangladesh factory fire kills at least 52 people", 09 July 2021

A fire engulfed a food and drink factory in Bangladesh killing at least 52 people, many of whom were trapped inside by an illegally locked door, according to fire officials.

...

Bangladesh has a history of industrial disasters, including factories catching fire with workers locked inside. Continuing corruption and lax enforcement have resulted in many deaths over the years, and big international brands, which employ tens of thousands of low-paid workers in Bangladesh, have come under pressure to improve factory conditions after fires and other disasters killed thousands of people.

The factory that caught fire on Thursday was a subsidiary of Sajeeb Group, a Bangladeshi company that produces juice under Pakistan’s Lahore-based Shezan International, said Kazi Abdur Rahman, the group’s senior general manager for export.

According to the group’s website, the company exports its products to countries including Australia, the US, Malaysia, Singapore, India, Bhutan, Nepal and nations in the Middle East and Africa.

Rahman told Associated Press by phone that the company was fully compliant with international standards, but he was not certain whether the factory exit was locked. According to Bangladesh law, a factory cannot lock its exit when workers are inside during production hours.

“We are a reputed company; we maintain rules,” he said. “What happened today is very sad. We regret it.”

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Past industrial tragedies have often been attributed to safety lapses that still plague the south Asian country despite its rapid economic growth.

In 2012, about 117 workers died when they were trapped behind locked exits in a garment factory in Dhaka. The country’s worst industrial disaster occurred the following year, when the Rana Plaza garment factory outside Dhaka collapsed, killing more than 1,100 people.

Authorities imposed tougher safety rules after that disaster and the country’s garment industry has since become largely compliant under domestic and global watchdogs. But many other local industries fail to maintain safety compliance and the disasters have continued.

In February 2019, a blaze ripped through a 400-year-old area cramped with apartments, shops and warehouses in the oldest part of Dhaka and killed at least 67 people. Another fire in Old Dhaka in a house illegally storing chemicals killed at least 123 people in 2010.

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”.

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