Original version

BBC World Service

BBC World Service Radio

World Service Radio

Assignment

Factual

Investigations and journeys into the heart of global events from BBC correspondents.

BBC World Service Australasia

BBC World Service schedule for American satellite radio and the Caribbean

BBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa Schedule

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa

BBC World Service South Asia

BBC World Service News Internet

BBC World Service Online

BBC World Service Europe and the Middle East

BBC World Service West and Central Africa Schedule

BBC World Service West and Central Africa

BBC World Service East Asia

Assignment: Hanging by a thread: Bangladesh’s garment workers

Documentaries

News

Hanging by a thread: Bangladesh’s garment workers

07/05/2020 GMT

BBC World Service - Assignment, Hanging by a thread: Bangladesh’s garment workers

The devastating effect of the coronavirus pandemic on Bangladesh’s garment industry

Assignment investigates the devastating impact of the coronavirus pandemic on workers and factory owners in Bangladesh’s garment sector.

In March, Aafiyah was told the garment factory where she worked would be closing. And like many other garment workers, she was left destitute in the slums of Dhaka.
 
Bangladesh’s garment industry employs millions of workers, mainly women, who make clothes for high street brands in Europe and the US. Western retailers, who have seen sales plummet due to the pandemic, have cancelled or suspended more than 3 billion dollars’ worth of orders from Bangladeshi garment factories. Over a million jobs in the sector could now be at risk. 
 
For Assignment, Caroline Bayley and Morshed Ali Khan hear Aafiyah’s story, and talk to factory owners and the British Retail Consortium about the huge challenges facing Bangladesh's main export industry.
 
Producer: Josephine Casserly

(Image: Women, wearing masks, work in a garment factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Credit: Reuters/Mohammad Ponir Hossain)

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Assignment

Hanging by a thread: Bangladesh’s garment workers

Genres

Formats

Brand

BBC World Service

About BBC World Service