BGMEA list set to put missing at 160

The apparel makers' body BGMEA may finalise the list of 160 readymade garment (RMG) workers, who still remained missing after the Rana Plaza tragedy at Savar in Dhaka in April last year.
The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) took the move a year after the collapse of the Rana Plaza on Apr 24 last year, killing at least 1,131 garment workers and maiming many others.
The BGMEA move came in the face of pressure from both local and international organisations, as in the absence of a list of the victims their families were not getting any help from the authorities despite their frantic efforts.
The apparel factory owners pledged adequate compensation for family members of those killed in the Rana Plaza collapse.
At the seventh annual general meeting held in April last the apparel makers' body formed a 12-member committee to prepare the list of missing workers, sources said.
The committee, headed by BGMEA vice president SM Mannan Kochi, also comprises government officials.
There were 347 workers claimed to be remaining missing initially. Of them, 177 were identified through DNA tests.
Later through verification 150 were confirmed missing while different right groups claimed 10 more to be remaining missing, sources said.
"The administration has prepared a preliminary list of 150 missing workers through verification," a source involved with the process said.
The committee is likely to finalise the list in its next meeting to be held in a couple of days.
Taslima Akhter, coordinator of Bangladesh Garment Sramik Sanghati, said that they had provided a list of 140 missing workers to the BGMEA.
"On verification of the data available with us and the BGMEA, we've found that the number of missing workers may be 160," she said.
"We'll sit within next two or three days to finalise the list of the missing Rana Plaza workers," SM Mannan Kochi told the FE Saturday.
"We'll also sit with the labour leaders again to share our findings and see whether they have any further information about the missing ones," he said without disclosing the number of missing workers.
After that, "we will hand over the final list to the government authority concerned requesting for declaring them (the missing workers) dead and compensate their families," he explained.