SAVAR, Bangladesh - Bangladesh began compiling details Monday about the victims of the 2013 Rana Plaza factory collapse as part of a compensation deal.
The collapse killed more than 1,100 people and highlighted the grim conditions in Bangladesh’s garment industry, a major supplier to global fashion brands.
Mojtaba Kazazi, executive commissioner of Rana Plaza Claims Administration, said injured workers and families of the dead should have compensation payments in six months.
Retailers like Bonmarche, El Corte Ingles, Loblaw and Primark have pledged $40 million for the fund.
“Today we have started working, we will continue it for months,” Kazazi said. “But the whole process will be complete in six months.”
An independent panel formed under the direction of Bangladesh’s High Court has recommended that the disabled and the families of the dead should receive more than $19,000. The panel also recommended nearly $9,000 for workers who lost limbs and about $1,900 for workers who suffered psychological trauma.
Nearly a year after the collapse, many victims say the compensation has been too slow and that the list of the dead is still incomplete. Dozens of people protested in the capital, Dhaka, and its outskirts Monday, demanding information about the missing people.
Jomila Begum sobbed Monday as she visited an office set up to help the victims and their families in Savar, outside the capital.
Begum said her daughter worked at a factory in Rana Plaza and has been missing since the collapse, but authorities have yet to confirm she was among the victims.
“I gave them blood for DNA test, but no news, they can’t say anything,” Begum said.
Kazazi, a former United Nations official, said volunteers were working to inform the injured workers and the families of the dead to check in with the administration. His group set up a booth at a Bangladeshi bank where families can open bank accounts to receive the money directly from the compensation fund.
The fund came into being after representatives from the government, the garment industry, buyers, trade unions, and local and international nongovernmental organizations formed the Rana Plaza Coordination Committee in September.
Bangladesh is the second-largest garment-producing country, after China, and it earns more than $20 billion a year from such exports, mainly to the United States and Europe.
Business, Pages 23 on 03/25/2014