Children of Tazreen fire injured send open letters to PM
Children of the injured workers carried placards and stood in front of the National Press Club in the capital on Monday
Children on Monday joined a two-month-long sit-in programme and sent open letters to the Prime Minister, requesting her to arrange compensation for their parents who were injured in the in Tazreen Fashion fire eight years ago.
Children of the injured workers carried placards and stood in front of the National Press Club in the capital on Monday.
In her open letter, Sabina Yasmin, daughter of injured worker Zarina Akter, said, "We have been separated from our parents for almost two months now. We spend each day in panic. Our injured parents are standing in front of the Press Club in the sun and rain. They are sick. Instead of being treated in hospitals, they are spending days on the streets.
"We plead to the Prime minister to accept the list of three-point demands, including early compensation, and return our family to us. We cannot eat properly because we have had no income for ages. We are in crisis without our parents."
Abdul Quader Nahid, son of garment worker Nasima Begum, who took part in the sit-in, said in an open letter, "My mother was injured in that terrible fire. She hasn't been able to work since then. Though I study with my younger siblings, we're unable to study properly due to lack of income. We can't even eat properly."
"We are upset without my mother, so please accept her demands and let her come back home. Please make arrangements so I can take my mother home."
The injured workers, who also took part in the sit-in, said they had been protesting in front of the Press Club for the past two months with a list of only three demands. The authorities had still not taken any action.
Injured Zarina Akter posed the questions, "What sort of a future lies in store for our children? Why do our children suffer from insecurities today? Why should they take to the streets to realize the most basic, logical demands?" She also demanded that those "responsible for the fire" be given exemplary punishment.
Injured and/or unemployed workers (as a result of the Tazreen Fashion fire) have been staging the sit-in since September 18 to press home their list of three demands.
Their three demands are as follows: provide compensation to injured workers, including instituting an amendment to a section of the compensation law; provide dignified and practical rehabilitation to all injured workers, and provide long-term medical treatment to the injured.
It is worth noting that 114 workers lost their lives and more than 300 workers were injured in a fire on 24 November 2012 at Tazreen Fashion in Ashulia on the outskirts of the capital.
