Even after two years of the deadliest factory collapse at Rana Plaza, family members of at least 13 missing workers are yet to get any compensation either from the government or from the Rana Plaza Donors’ Trust Fund.
However, the family members of 15 missing victims received below Tk1 lakh as compensation while the rest families got up to Tk30 lakh, beginning from Tk2 lakh.
Dhaka Tribune has discovered the figures after talking to the family members of 148 missing workers in Rana Plaza collapse, which claimed more than 1,135 lives.
“We did not get any single penny as compensation neither from the government nor from the trust fund against my missing daughter,” said tearful Saleha Begum, mother of Sabina Khatun, who went missing since Rana Plaza disaster.
Expressing her anger over the stakeholders, she also said: “I don’t want the money, rather I prefer to get the body of my missing daughter.”
On the contrary, Marium, a sister of missing Lina Akter, claimed that her family had received only Tk95, 000 as compensation.
While talking to the Dhaka Tribune, she, however, questioned: “How can the authority compensate a family of a missing worker only with Tk95,000 while the families of the injured received over Tk15 lakh.’’
According to Labour and Employment Ministry, a total of 166 families claimed their missing relatives used to work for the factories housed at Rana Plaza.
After the claim, the ministry had earlier sent a list of 166 workers missing since Rana Plaza collapse to the 48 Deputy Commissioners (DCs) for cross-checking the list in their respective districts to confirm whether they were really missing or not.
“We have identified 104 out of 166 missing RMG workers who worked for five apparel factories housed at Rana Plaza, said Labour and Employment Secretary Mikail Shipar.
Among the 104 identified workers, the name of the 90 people was sent to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) to take the necessary steps to compensate the victims, said Mikail.
He also said: “The process has already been started and it will be distributed very soon to the victims family members.”
Meanwhile, the Rana Plaza Coordination Committee has so far distributed Tk76 crore among the victims, which is 70% of the estimated compensation.
“We’ve included the missing workers, who were able to present minimum documents to prove them as workers,” Ramesh Chandra Roy, secretary general of IndustriAll Bangladesh Council and member of the coordination committee, told the Dhaka Tribune.
He also said: “If a genuine missing worker was not included in the list, we will provide them compensation as per the rules if their families could claim with proper documents.
“We’ve so far collected US$24m and hopeful to get the rest $6m needed to compensate all the workers of Rana Plaza,” said Roy.
Prime Minister Skeikh Hasina has so far distributed over Tk15.38 crore as compensation to 976 deceased victims’ family while Tk4.10 crore to 38 severely injured victims.
The Rana Plaza Coordination Committee also paid Tk76 crore, which is 70% of the compensation to the injured and the family members of deceased and missing workers.
