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A plainclothes policeman catches a woman during a police crackdown on prostitution in Quanzhou, Fujian province, October 29, 2011. China should remove criminal and administrative penalties against sex workers which often lead to serious police abuses, Human Rights Watch said in a report released on May 14, 2013. The abuses include torture, beatings, physical assaults, fines and arbitrary detentions of up to two years, as well as a failure to investigate crimes against sex workers by clients, bosses and state agents, according to the report. Prostitution is not permitted under Chinese law, although the industry has boomed since the country launched economic reforms in 1978. REUTERS/Stringer

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Bangladesh clothes workers die in factory fire

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DHAKA | Sat Nov 24, 2012 3:10pm EST

DHAKA (Reuters) - A fire swept through a garment factory on the outskirts of Bangladesh's capital on Saturday, killing at least nine people and injuring more than 100, police and witnesses said.

The fire at the nine-story factory in the Ashulia industrial belt started on the ground floor and quickly spread. Firefighters took nearly five hours to extinguish the flames.

Most of the victims died as they jumped from the building to escape the flames, a police official said. The death toll could rise, witnesses said.

The cause of the blaze was not immediately clear.

Bangladesh has around 4,500 garment factories that make clothes for brands including Tesco, Wal-Mart, JC Penney, H&M, Marks & Spencer, Kohl's and Carrefour.

Readymade garments make up 80 percent of the country's $24 billion annual exports.

(Reporting by Ruma Paul; Editing by Jon Hemming)
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Comments (2)
JamVee wrote:
And . . . Were the doors chained and padlocked? PROBABLY! That’s the way they treat workers in such countries, it is pathetic. What is more pathetic, is that we buy the clothes made in these “prisons”.

Nov 24, 2012 4:57pm EST  --  Report as abuse
Naksuthin wrote:
Of course Bangladesh is a Conservative’s Nirvana.
Few Regulations; Low Taxes; No Labor unions
A place where the free market ensures that workers are well taken care of and the average factory worker makes $37 a MONTH

Nov 25, 2012 2:27am EST  --  Report as abuse
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