The collapse of a Bangladesh factory two weeks ago has shined a spotlight on one of the world’s largest garment industries, where many clothes for Western retailers are produced. The death toll has passed 800 and continues to rise, making the catastrophe one of the worst industrial accidents of modern times.
Stories like the final desperate hours of the last person to survive the building’s collapse have riveted the nation, prompting anger and outrage.
This BBC investigation goes inside the garment industry in Bangladesh to examine the complicity of Western buyers who turn a blind eye to hazardous conditions that allow them to keep costs down. Using undercover cameras, the BBC finds striking evidence of child labor and unsafe practices that continue to put workers at risk.
“If I ever see the owner (of the factory), I’ll burn him alive,” says a woman who lost her daughter in a factory fire, “just like he burned my child to ash and emptied a mother’s chest.”
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