Asia Floor Wage Alliance (AFWA) has called for a transparent public investigation into both fires -- Mirpur and Chattogram factories with full disclosure of factory ownership and sourcing brands.
Expressing its solidarity with victims and their families, the AFWA, a global coalition of labor and social alliance dedicated to achieving living wages and ending gender-based violence for garment workers in Asia, also stressed the need for ensuring comprehensive compensation and rehabilitation for survivors and the victim families.
It also recommended enforcement of child labour, building safety, and fire safety laws, backed by binding safety mechanisms with trade unions at the center.
AFWA in a recent statement said: "The devastating factory fires in Mirpur (Dhaka) and Chattogram once again expose a system built on the exploitation and neglect of workers' safety that values profit over human lives in the garment sector."
The October 14 fire incident at Mirpur killed at least 16 people -- many of them were children, it said, adding that the blaze began in an unlicensed chemical warehouse and quickly engulfed the adjoining building, which housed three unregistered garment printing factories -- Smart Design and Print, RN Fashion and Bismillah Fashion.
Preliminary investigations revealed that toxic fumes from the chemical warehouse caused workers to lose consciousness within minutes, while the factory's locked rooftop exit prevented escape, said the statement.
None of the factories had fire safety certifications, it further said, adding that they were operating without registration or oversight.
"The workers had no warning, no safety equipment, and no way to escape," it said.
"Sixteen lives are gone -- some of them were children who should have been in school, not trapped inside the factories that operate in violation of every law and standard," the statement quoted Sultana Begum, President Green Bangla Garments Workers Federation and CoChair at AFWA Bangladesh as saying.
Both the factories were unregistered, subcontracted, and hidden from oversight, she said, adding that they demand accountability -- from factory owners, from the government, and from all those who profit from this system of neglect.
What kind of progress allows children to burn for profit? she questioned.
Two days after the Mirpur fire, another massive fire erupted at Al Hamid Textile in the Chittagong Export Processing Zone (CEPZ) on October 16.
While most of the factory workers escaped, the cause of the fire and the extent of damage remain under investigation.
That a fire of such scale could erupt inside a so-called "compliant" zone reveals a crisis of oversight, enforcement and accountability, AFWA added.
"Whether in hidden subcontracting units or export zones governed by formal compliance systems, garment workers remain unprotected from preventable industrial disasters," it said.
The conditions that made such tragedies possible persist because of a crisis in governance and accountability in garment global supply chains, it said, adding trade unions are essential to ensuring that workers' safety comes first.
The only acceptable change is change grounded in binding, enforceable agreements with trade unions at the centre, it noted.
Brand-led audits, compliance programs and voluntary codes of conduct that collapse the moment they are tested, while purchasing practices drive suppliers to cut costs and subcontract to unregistered, unsafe factories, said the statement.
It further said: "This is not a failure of oversight - it is the direct result of a system designed to protect profits, not people."
Munni_fe@yahoo.com
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