Labour rights campaigners shot and distributed dozens of images of labelled clothes inside the gutted remains of the Tazreen Fashions factory in Ashulia, where the ferocious blaze took place late on Saturday.
“We found clothing of ENYCE (Combs’s label) and Faded Glory (a Walmart range),” Kalpona Akter, director of the Bangladesh Centre for Worker Solidarity, told AFP.
She said that clothes also made for German discount line KiK, US firm Dickies, True Desire of Sears, Edinburgh Woollen Mill and several other Western brands had been identified in the burnt-out ruins.
ENYCE and Combs, who was formerly known as Puff Daddy, were not immediately available for comment.
But Walmart, European chain C&A and Hong Kong supplier Li & Fung have been among companies confirming they had clothes made at the factory.
“We are sure that Mr Combs will be as shocked as we are to find that his company is implicated in such a horrific tragedy,” said Liz Parker of the Clean Clothes Campaign, an Amsterdam-based textile rights group.
“We urge him to use his influence to make sure clothing factories are safe places for people to work.”
Meanwhile, Carrefour and IKEA both issued statements yesterday saying they had had contracts with Tuba Group, the parent company that owns the Tazreen factory, but had not used the plant that burnt down.
The fire at Tazreen Fashion brings the total of workers that have died in factory fires in Bangladesh since 2006 to around 700, according to the group.
Source: The Daily Star
