Bangladeshi volunteers and rescue workers assist in rescue operations 48 hours after an eight-story building collapsed in Savar, on the outskirts of Dhaka, on April 26, 2013. (Munir Uz Zaman/AFP/Getty Images)
GENEVA — The recent building collapse and tragic loss of over 600 lives in a garment factory in Bangladesh has once more turned the spotlight on business and human rights. As with many such tragedies, there appear to have been numerous contributing factors, including weak workplace safety laws, inadequate inspections and enforcement, and a failure by Western retailers to ensure worker safety and basic labor rights in their supply chains.
"We have found around 50 people still alive at several places on the third floor after digging tunnels. We hope we can rescue them by tomorrow morning," Sheikh Mizanur Rahman, deputy director of the Bangladeshi fire service, told Agence France-Presse.
The 6-kilometer-long road-rail bridge across the Padma River is intended to link the country’s underdeveloped southern region with the capital city, Dhaka, and Bangladesh’s main port, Chittagong, benefiting some 30 million people.
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