Bangladesh rescuers' hopes fade

Written By Unknown on Senin, 29 April 2013 | 19.15

29 April 2013 Last updated at 06:58 ET
A soldier climbs on debris from the garment factory building that collapsed

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The BBC's Anbarasan Ethirajan in Dhaka: "Rescue teams went inside last night and there was a fire... they had to pull out and they could not save a young woman"

Rescue work on a collapsed building in Bangladesh has entered a sixth day, but officials say they no longer expect to find any survivors.

Heavy lifting gear is now being used to raise slabs of concrete at the Rana Plaza garment factory, where at least 380 died after Wednesday's collapse.

PM Sheikh Hasina visited the site and some of the victims on Monday.

Several people, including the owner of the building, have been arrested in connection with the disaster.

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"Start Quote

How am I going to feed and raise my daughters?"

End Quote Victim's widow

At least 3,000 are estimated to have been in the Rana Plaza building when it collapsed. About 2,430 are now known to have survived but hundreds are dead or missing.

Some relatives of those missing complained that the prime minister had not spoken to them during her visit to the site.

"We could have talked to her, and she also could have listened to us," said Monowara Begum, the mother of one missing worker.

Sheikh Hasina also visited some of the survivors in hospital. Bangladesh news site BDNews24 said she had assured them they would receive help from the government.

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What Bangladesh's media are saying

An editorial in the Daily Star says it is "unfortunate" that Bangladeshi garment manufacturers "have convoluted the idea of 'competitive' and 'cheap'," and that workers are "bearing the brunt of this in terms of poor wages and through their lives".

Also in the Daily Star, Hameeda Hossain writes: "Even as we mourn the dead, whose poorly paid labour contributed to profits from Bangladesh' export garments, it is time to question why the state has repeatedly ignored violation of laws, why regulatory mechanisms fail to monitor systemic failures, why political patronage confers impunity for corporate crimes."

Muhammad Q Islam writes for bdnews24: "We still have a 47 million strong army of very poor people who will be willing to take all the risks that culminate in injury and death, both at home and abroad, to improve their lot. Our economic policies explicitly rely on continued availability of this work force to fuel our economic growth."

Fariha Sarawat says in the Dhaka Tribune that while buyers should take some moral responsibility for such disasters "the state aids and abates this hostile environment by repeatedly siding with the interests of the manufacturers, instead of the workers - it has failed to punish a single manufacturer whose negligence and greed have resulted in the death of workers".

Rubble fire

On Sunday night, rescuers working deep inside the rubble were told to leave, as cranes were brought in to begin lifting the heavy blocks of fallen concrete.

"We are proceeding cautiously. If there is still a soul alive, we will try to rescue that person,'' army spokesman Shahinul Islam told reporters.

"We are giving the highest priority to saving people, but there is little hope of finding anyone alive."

Fire brigade chief Brig Gen Ali Ahmed Khan said crews had seen bodies lying on the ground inside, but that "no-one was seen alive".

Rescue co-ordinators said that work with heavy-lifting gear would be done carefully to avoid further collapses and to protect bodies trapped under the debris as much as possible.

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Bangladesh's economy

  • A total population of some 150.4m, 88% under the age of 55.
  • GDP in 2012 was around $110bn - the ready-made garment (RMG) industry makes up 80% of all exports, totalling more than $15bn in 2012-13 financial year.
  • About four million people are directly employed in the RMG industry, most of them women, earning an average monthly salary of roughly $40.

On Sunday afternoon, the operation was halted when a fire broke out as sparks from a metal-cutter ignited scraps of fabric in the rubble.

Four firefighters were taken to hospital.

The BBC's Anbarasan Ethirajan says rescuers had been trying to free a trapped woman for a number of hours when the fire began, but they later reported she had not survived the fire.

Also on Sunday, the building's owner, Mohammed Sohel Rana, was arrested, close to the Indian border.

He had been on the run since his eight-storey collapsed.

Bangladeshi TV later showed Mr Rana - a local leader of the youth wing of prime minister's Awami League party - in handcuffs after being flown back to Dhaka by helicopter.

He is accused of illegally adding three extra floors to the building and of telling workers to enter despite concerns being raised about cracks which had appeared in the walls.

At least seven people, including three owners of factories operating in the building, have now been arrested.

Bangladeshi media reports say the Mr Rana's father, Abdul Khalek, has also now been detained in connection with the collapse.

Anger at the building's collapse has triggered days of violent protests in Dhaka demanding those responsible be punished and for an improvement in factory conditions.

Garment industry workers across the country were given the weekend off, in the hope that the anger would fade.

But on Monday, thousands of workers walked out of factories in the Ashulia and Gazipur industrial districts shortly after they opened, and staged a protest march, reportedly setting fire to an ambulance.

Bangladesh has one of the largest garment industries in the world, providing cheap clothing for major Western retailers that benefit from its widespread low-cost labour.

But the industry has been widely criticised for its low pay and limited rights given to workers and for the often dangerous working conditions in garment factories.


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