The Bangladeshi government says the country's garment industry, which employs four million people, faces a "major crisis" because British retailers are cancelling orders. An estimated £2.5 billion of contracts have been cancelled to date by companies like ASDA, Arcadia, Debenhams, New Look, Peacocks and Sports Direct.
Bangladesh's Commerce Minister, Tipu Munshi, called on the British government to intervene to prevent mass factory closures.
"The factories may collapse. They will not be able to pay key costs and may not be able to run again. That's a major problem," Mr Munshi told ITV News. "The British government should take care of this. They have a responsibility. In our country, the government have taken positive steps to support [garment factories]. The UK should have to support the retailers also, so there is stimulus, so they can take this load to support us."
Bangladesh makes so much of the clothing that UK retailers sell - and it too is in lockdown. In the capital, Dhaka, the vast majority of factories have been closed since March 26, the four million people they employ have been told to stay at home. UK retailers source from Bangladesh, in part, because labour costs are so low. The average worker earns just under £100 a month.
The shutdown of the industry has caused extreme hardship to people who didn't have very much to begin with. The Bangladeshi government isn't paying salaries in the way the UK government is. It has offered low-interest loans to factory owners in the hope they will borrow to pay their staff.
Comment: A dedicated practitioner's observations on the Covid line of fire confirms that global health organizations directed priority medical care to the extensive, exhausting and largely unnecessary treatment of coronavirus, denying crucial medical needs of and services to the public-at-large.