Groups urge brands to sign safety agreement after another Bangladesh clothing factory fire kills at least seven
Following yet another fire in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on Saturday, January 26 that killed at least seven people who were locked inside Smart Export Garments Ltd, the Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC), the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC) and the International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF) called on major retailers and brands that buy apparel from Bangladesh to join the labor-supported Bangladesh Fire and Building Safety Agreement in order to prevent future tragedies, according to a statement issued by the Clean Clothes Campaign.
The factory fire in the nation’s Capital is the latest in a pattern of deadly fires that labor rights advocates say could have been prevented with appropriate measures. According to ILRF's new report, Deadly Secrets, which examines how corporate-controlled monitoring has failed to protect workers' lives, since 1990, more than 1,000 people have been killed in garment factories in Bangladesh.