A fire has broken out at a cotton spinning mill in Bangladesh, the third of its kind in less than six months.
The fire, which according to local reports broke out at around 2.30pm on Tuesday at the cotton storage complex of Otto Spinning Ltd, has resulted in six deaths.
It comes after a separate fire broke out in April at the FR Tower multi-storey commercial building on Kamal Ataturk Avenue at Banani in Dhaka – resulting in 26 deaths, and prompting a call from the EU to the government of Bangladesh to implement garment factory safety standards at all commercial buildings in the country. This, in turn, followed a fire at garment maker Anzir Apparels.
Although ongoing initiatives to improve factory and building safety in Bangladesh only cover ready-made garment factories, stakeholders have regularly expressed concern over what they say is a wavering commitment by the government to the future of worker safety.
In May, an agreement was reached between the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) and the Accord on Fire and Building Safety, which allowed the Accord to continue its operations in the country for a transition period of 281 days.
This follows concerns that the government’s Remediation Sustainability Council (RSC) was not ready for a takeover of the Accord’s operation.
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By GlobalDataEarlier this year the Accord’s members had written an open letter to the government of Bangladesh, reiterating their commitment to the safety of the RMG industry.
Last month a group of investors urged that the new RSC must work on the same principles and criteria as the Accord in order to guarantee worker safety.
