Status: 07/31/2021 3:53 p.m.
The government of Bangladesh has announced the reopening of the textile factories for Sunday – despite the rapidly increasing number of corona infections. Hundreds of thousands of people are therefore on their way to the metropolises.
In Bangladesh, the number of new infections with the coronavirus is rising rapidly – and yet the country’s government has decided to reopen the 4,500 textile factories that supply clothing to the European and North American markets. It should be ready on Sunday. That is why hundreds of thousands of employees have already returned to the country’s metropolises. There was a great crush at the train stations, ferry ports and bus stations of the South Asian country.
Because of the corona pandemic, the country’s authorities had ordered the closure of factories, offices and shops this month, which should last until August 5. According to a government statement, clothing factories that supply well-known western fashion brands are now allowed to open early. The textile industry, which is extremely influential in Bangladesh, had warned of “catastrophic” consequences if orders from international fashion labels were not carried out on time.
Severely restricted local and long-distance traffic
The textile industry in Bangladesh has more than four million employees. The South Asian country is the second largest export nation for clothing after China. At the Shimulia ferry port alone, 70 kilometers from Dhaka, tens of thousands of workers were waiting for their transport to the capital.
Mohammad Masum, 25, said he left his village before dawn. He covered more than 30 kilometers to the ferry port on foot and in rickshaws. “The police stopped us at many checkpoints,” he said.
In the course of the lockdown, local and long-distance public transport in Bangladesh was severely restricted. Officially, around 1.2 million corona infections and more than 20,000 deaths from Covid-19 have been registered in the country with its 169 million inhabitants. However, experts assume that the actual number of infections and deaths is at least four times as high.