H&M aims to pay all textile workers “living wage” by 2018
Hennes & Mauritz , the world’s second-largest clothing retailer, laid out a plan to pay a fair “living wage” to some 850,000 textile workers by 2018, saying governments were acting too slowly.
“We believe that the wage development, driven by for example governments in some countries, is taking too long, so we want to take further action and encourage the whole industry to follow,” H&M said in a statement on its website on Monday.
H&M sources most of its garments from factories in Asia, particularly Bangladesh, where a factory collapse in April that killed almost 1,130 people put pressure on big brands to improve the working conditions of those making clothes for the West.
![]()
Women trafficking at 20 transit points along Indo-Bangla border
Although women trafficking from Bangladesh to various destinations, including India, is not new, the malady has taken an alarming proportion as the traffickers are using 20 transit points along Bangladesh-India border comfortably.
Twenty-eight districts of Bangladesh have common borders with India and two districts have borders with Myanmar, and those are being used by the traffickers in human trafficking, especially women and children.
According to intelligence sources, the frontier areas of Khulna, Jessore, Satkhira, Rajshahi, Dinajpur, Rangpur, Mymensingh, Comilla, Brahmanbaria, and Sylhet are frequently used as land routes for human trafficking, reports UNB.
![]()
UK Parliamentary Group releases report on RMG
The All Party UK Parliamentary Group (APPG), chaired by Anne Main, has released a report “After Rana Plaza: 2013” on the readymade garment (RMG) industry in Bangladesh.
The report is the result of six months of research into the causes of, and circumstances surrounding, the RanaPlaza collapse, conducted by the six-member APPG fact-finding mission in Bangladesh, which interviewed and discussed policy recommendations with stakeholders from the Bangladesh garment indsutry.
Malaysia assures of looking after Bangladeshi workers
Malaysia has assured that it would look after the Bangladeshi workers so that they do not face any adverse situation there.
The assurance came from the visiting Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Bin Razak during a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) on Monday.
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina led the Bangladesh side, while visiting Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak the Malaysian side.
After the talks, PM's Press Secretary Abul Kalam Azad briefed reporters.
The...
The...
Politics risks tearing itself over violent creation
Bangladesh, that most beautiful and tragic of countries, today risks tearing itself apart in renewed vicious squabbles over its violent creation. It is as if the tormented ghosts of the country’s bloody past are rising to seek revenge.
It is time for Bangladeshi and international leaders to set up a truth and reconciliation commission to exorcise the ghosts and try to heal the deep wounds before it is too late.
A twist in the tragedy is that it had begun to look as if - in spite of recent terrible disasters in garment factories - Bangladesh was finally going to justify the golden dreams of its founding fathers and give the lie to Henry Kissinger’s description of the country as an eternal basket case.
[caption id="attachment_415" align="alignleft" width="300"]
Rohingya refugees sceptical of Burmese reforms
Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh who fled sectarian violence in neighbouring Myanmar in 2012 have little faith in the much heralded democratic reforms taking place at home.
"We have been suffering for generations," Muhammad Zakaria, 31, who fled his home in Myanmar's western Rakhine State after the first wave of sectarian violence between Buddhists and Muslims in June 2012, told IRIN.
"Dating back to my grandfather's time, we haven't found peace. So I'm not really sure if any of these reforms happen it will bring peace."
Rohingyas, an ethnic, linguistic and religious (Muslim) minority numbering some 800,000 in Rakhine, have long faced persecution and discrimination in Myanmar.
![]()
