Inside Bangladesh's Garments Workshops

By Eve Wagstaff @Eve_Journo

CHILDREN as young as nine have been found working shifts up to 18 hours long at a fabric workshop in Dhaka, Bangladesh for just £1 a day

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Workers were photographed in the fabric workshop in Dhaka in Bangladesh

Visual journalist Zakir Hossain Chowdhury captured these shocking images at the factory, which makes cloth for local markets, after meeting several of the young workers on one of their rare days off.

He said: “I was walking along the Buriganga River in Dhaka and came across a few children resting on the bank. I started speaking to them and they told me about the workshop.

Many of the workers start work at 9am and do not finish until 3am

“I couldn’t believe it and asked if I could see inside. They told me to come when the owner was out and managed to get me in.”

Due to the demand of the product they produce, the workers spend nearly all of their time in the confines of one room. Eating, sleeping, bathing and even going to the toilet all inside the factory.

The workers are paid the equivalent of £1 for working an 18 hour day

Starting at 9am the staff are expected to finish at around 3am, and often manage just four hours of sleep.

Zakir claims that food is provided but it is often inedible and the workers survive on nothing but biscuits that they have to purchase out of their own wages.

Workers at the fabric workshop were as young as nine years old

Staying over night with the workers in the factory Zakir was shocked by the conditions they lived in.

He said: “I stayed with them one night. In one room there were around 30 workers and 95 per cent of them were children. I felt very sad when I saw their food. It had been left out for so long it had wasted.”

Many of the workers sleep in the factory between their shits

One child worker Selim, 11, said: “The food is not good enough. We can’t eat it. We take the biscuits and tea only.”

Zakir continued: “It was horrible [in the room]. There were bed bugs where they slept and by the morning I had bites.”

Photojournalist Zakir Hossain Chowdhury was shocked by the conditions he found in the workshop

One child worker, Aman, 9, said: “Everyday we can’t differ between day and night. The whole time we’re inside the factory. Food, sleep, shower: Everything we do is inside this room.”