On Wednesday, 24 April 2013 the Rana Plaza factory building collapsed in the Bangladesh capital, Dhaka, last year, more than 1,130 garment workers were killed, crushed under eight stories of concrete.
More than 2,500 people were rescued from the building alive, but some suffered terrible injuries. Here are some of their stories.
Some companies whose clothing was assembled in those factories have compensated survivors and families of the victims, and signed a commitment to ensure workers are working in safe conditions. This is known as the ‘Accord for Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh.
Roughly 1,130 labourers, working in factories producing garments for international clothing retailers, died when the badly constructed complex building collapsed to the ground. These 1,130 people who died were the ones recognised, there could be many more but are completely unrecognisable. Other 2,500 workers were injured.
The Refugees that make our clothes..
The bigger brands want to get their products into their stores as soon as possible, which means they need to be made closer to home. Many of those products are made in Turkey.
The problem with Turkey is that many workers are not being treated fairly, with Turkey not being registered. This leads to exploitation, because the workers don't have legal protection. Many refugees from Syria, now live in Turkey. Hardly any of them have the right to work, so many work illegally in the clothing industry. They get horrendus wages, and awful working conditions. They know what they are getting themselves into, but they can't do anything about it as they need to survive. One of the refugees had died in the Rana Plaza, as the building collapsed onto his machine and onto him. The company had only paid £180 in compensation, to the family.
Now the mother, has no other choice but the send her 3 children to work. She stated, 'it's a choice between life and death'.
One of the factories, produces clothing for Mnago in those bad working condiions. When Mnago was confronted about them, they said they knew nothing about it and it was done without their knowledge. They also stated that they were 'good conditions expect for some personal safety measures'. Also, they did not find any Syrian workers.