Why Big Fashion Labels Shouldn’t Pull Out of Bangladesh

[Time]

Nine days after the fatal collapse of a garment-factory building on the outskirts of Dhaka, Bangladesh, hundreds of photos of missing persons are still plastered to the walls of the Enam Medical College and Hospital. Exhausted relatives hold up pictures of their loved ones, showing them to passersby in the corridors in the hopes that somebody will have spotted them. At least 3,500 garment workers were inside the multistory Rana Plaza building when it crumpled in on itself on April 24. As of Wednesday, more than 430 people had been pulled dead from the rubble, and while officials say the number of missing is less than 150, many believe it is much higher. For the hundreds of survivors still recuperating in Enam, the terror of lying for days among dead co-workers is rivaled only by the fear of what lies ahead. Many have had one or more limbs broken or amputated and will be disabled for life, unable to continue working in one of the few industries in Bangladesh that offers regular — if dangerous — employment. The government has promised victims' families compensation and the survivors future jobs, but workers who have been the financial lifeline of entire households are not comforted. Sujan Roy, a 22-year-old packaging worker, was found buried in the rubble five hours after the building collapsed, and has since had a gangrenous leg amputated. His job at the doomed factory building provided his family's only source of income and helped send his younger sisters to school. "Now what will happen to them?" he wonders aloud. "Who will give me a job now?" (PHOTOS: Hundreds Dead as Garment Factory in Bangladesh Collapses) The Rana Plaza collapse is the not the first avoidable tragedy in Bangladesh's booming garment industry, nor is it likely to be the last. Just a few months back, in November, 112 workers were killed in a deadly blaze at the Tazreen Fashions factory, where clothes were being produced for global companies like Walmart and Sears. While this latest disaster has kicked off a fresh round

Via: TIME GlobalSpin