On the one decade anniversary of the Tazreen Fashion tragedy in Ashulia, Savar, injured workers and leaders and activists of various organizations paid tribute by placing flowers in memory of the deceased.
On Sunday (November 24) morning, injured workers and leaders and activists of labor organizations broke the lock of the main gate of the closed factory of Tazreen Fashion located in Narsinghpur area of Ashulia and entered inside. Later, they started a program to pay tribute to them.
Every year, various labor organizations and local workers come to Tazreen's burnt building today to remember the deceased, demanding adequate compensation and rehabilitation. On the one hand, many of the injured workers are suffering from paralysis due to lack of proper treatment. On the other hand, many are losing their ability and leading a subhuman life.
Pregnant garment worker Fatema jumped from the 4th floor with her husband Robin to escape the fire. The unemployed and distraught couple started cultivating vegetables on others land, and later started a small tea shop. But after almost ten years, Robin died in May this year. Fatima is now a lone soldier in the fight to survive with her husband's death, children Jannat and Faiza. The small tea shop built by her husband is her last resource for survival.
Robin worked as a quality controller at Tazreen Fashion. He died on May 9, 2022. Fatima Khatun said, "My husband died two months after opening the tea shop. Now it is becoming difficult for me to run the family alone with two daughters. The daily sales are 5 to 7 hundred taka. With this money, I also have to buy goods for the shop. I also have to live. A local person buys 1 sack of rice every month. Now the only demand is compensation.
Since Sunday morning, relatives of the slain workers have come to pay their respects in front of the factory in Ashulia, holding flowers. Leaders and activists of several organizations including Garments Workers' Solidarity, Textile Garments Workers' Federation, Textile Garments Workers' Federation, Garments Workers' Trade Union Center, Bangladesh Garments and Industrial Workers' Federation, Bangladesh Garments and Sweater Workers' Trade Union Center, Bangladesh Labor Institute paid tribute to the deceased by placing flowers. Industrial Police-1 Superintendent of Police Mohammad Sarwar Alam said, "These worker brothers and sisters are the main stakeholders of our Industrial Police. Our work, our everything. This Industrial Police has been created for them. I hope that the prosecution department and everyone together complete the trial quickly and give exemplary punishment. So that everyone is careful in such matters in the future and such incidents do not happen." At this time, labor leaders said, "Today is Tazreen's 12th anniversary, but no trial has been held in this incident yet. The families of the deceased workers are passing their days in hardship. And the injured workers are living their lives paralyzed." Our demand is that this building in Tazreen be demolished and the workers be rehabilitated or a hospital be built here and the murderer Delwar be hanged.
Khairul Mamun Mintu, Legal Affairs Secretary of the Bangladesh Garments and Sweater Workers Trade Union Center, said, after the fire broke out on November 24, 2012, the factory authorities locked the gate and burned more than a hundred workers to death. Even after a decade of this incident, the punishment of the guilty has not been ensured. The Awami League government did not want it, so there was no trial. The workers have not yet received appropriate compensation and justice. The demands of the workers have not yet been met. The interim government should make arrangements for the trial of the guilty and appropriate compensation.
Tuhin Chowdhury, President of the Bangladesh Garments Workers Trade Union Federation, said, "We are demanding from the new government that the victims be rehabilitated; reasonable compensation is ensured after an investigation."
A total of 117 garment workers were killed and more than 200 people were injured in this terrible fire in the country's history on November 24, 2012. The day after the fire, Ashulia Police Station Sub-Inspector (SI) Khairul Islam filed a case as the plaintiff. The trial has not been completed even after a year of filing the case.
The Tazreen Fashion building located in the Nischintapur area of Ashulia, Savar is now just a witness to time. After so many years, the building looks like a ghost. Various labor organizations, families of the deceased workers and injured workers attended various programs in front of the factory on this day.