Bangladesh's critical garment factories reopen after protests

STORY: Bangladesh's garment factories reopened on Wednesday (August 7) and raced to resume full operations after production was halted by violent protests that ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina this week.

The South Asian nation is home to over 40,000 garment factories making clothes for international brands including H&M, Zara, Adidas, and Nike.

But many had been forced to close under curfews imposed during the unrest.

Emdadul Haq is a factory manager for Urmi Garments in Dhaka.

"During this ongoing movement the factories were fully closed for six days. We faced huge loss in these days. We lost 228,000 pieces of production and $107,000 in this factory alone."

Urmi Garments has three factories employing nearly 8,000 workers, and makes products for H&M, Uniqlo, and Marks and Spencer.

Hasina resigned and fled the country on Monday (August 5) after around 300 people were killed and thousands injured in a crackdown on student-led protests since July.

The violence was but one threat. The factory closures were another.

Razia Begum is a garment worker.

"During this movement and clashes our factory was closed and lost a lot of money. We went out of work, sitting idle at home. We were scared. We are poor people depending on daily wage and overtime. If we sit back home, how can we run our families?"

The International Monetary Fund expects the ready-made garments industry will account for 90% of Bangladesh's $55 billion annual exports in the financial year 2024.