The government has identified 98 missing ready-made garments workers who worked for five apparel factories housed at Rana Plaza which collapsed in April 2013, killing over 1,135 people.
However, Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) hadearlier prepared a list, which claimed that 166 RMG workers were missing in the devastating building collapse.
Against the missing claim by BGMEA, the government has so far identified 98 RMG workers, who are still missing, through field-level verification involving the Deputy Commissioners of the 34 districts.
“The ministry has so far received identification of 98 missing workers from 34 districts while the rest of the districtsare yet to send us their verification reports,” Faizur Rahman, joint secretary of Labour and Employment Ministry, told the Dhaka Tribune.
He also said: “We’ve already sent a list of 92 identified missing workers to the Prime Minster’s office (PMO), which will take necessary steps to compensate families of the ill-fated workers.”
The ministry had earlier sent a list of 166 workers missing since Rana Plaza collapse to the 48 Deputy Commissioners (DCs) for cross-checking purpose in their respective districts to confirm whether they are really missing or not.
“In most cases, the DCs were able to identify the missing workers excepting in Madaripur district where we had sent a list of three missing workers,” said a high ministry official on condition of anonymity.
Last year, a committee led by Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) made a list of 166 missing workers, who worked for Rana Plaza. The missing list was prepared on the basis of information collecting from the victims’ family, trade unions and other related organisations.
Later on, the committee sent a list of 24 missing workers to the Labour and Employment Ministry for further verification as it could verify 135 claims as genuine.
Apart from that, the Rana Plaza Trust Fund sent the names of 7 other workers to the ministry for further verification.
Prime Minister Skeikh Hasina has so far compensated over Tk15.38 crore to 976 deceased victims’ family while Tk4.10 crore to 38 severely injured victims.
On April 24 in 2013, Rana Plaza, which housed five garment factories, a shopping complex at Savar collapsed killing 1,135 workers and injured over 2,500 workers.