Julhas Alam

Associated Press

In this Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2019 file photo, Bangladeshi garment workers vandalize a vehicle during a protest in Savar, on the outskirts of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Kalpona Akter of the Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity said Thursday, Jan. 31, that more than 5,000 garment workers demanding wage hikes have been laid off while hundreds of them are facing police charges in the world’s second-largest garment export industry. She said the firings came after thousands of workers took to the streets earlier this month in and around Dhaka, the nation’s capital.

Thousands Fired After Protest in Bangladesh

One worker was killed and more than 50 were injured in clashes during the protests.

In this Thursday, June 28, 2018, photo, a Bangladeshi laborer processes leather at a factory on the banks of the Daleshwari River in Savar, Bangladesh. Bangladesh tanneries prepping leather for shoes, belts, wallets and purses are dumping toxic chemicals into the Daleshwari river at a new industrial complex more than a year after the government shut them down for poisoning a different river and using child labor.

Toxic Tanneries Pollute New Site

They polluted a new site about a year after the government shut them down for poisoning a different river and using child labor.

A Bangladeshi woman cries holding a portrait of her daughter who was a victim of the Rana Plaza garment factory collapse, on the fifth anniversary of the accident in Savar, near Dhaka, Bangladesh, Tuesday, April 24, 2018. The tragedy killed 1,134 people, many of them young women supporting extended families, and injured more than 2,500.

Bangladesh, 5 Years Post-Factory Collapse

A 2013 garment factory collapse in Bangladesh killed 1,134 people and left thousands injured.

In this April 25, 2013, file photo, Bangladeshi people gather as rescuers look for survivors and victims at the site of a building that collapsed a day earlier, in Savar, near Dhaka, Bangladesh. An international rights group says dozens of global clothing companies are not complying with a plan to ensure better safety in Bangladesh garment factories following the deadly collapse of a building four years ago.

Clothing Companies Not Complying After Deadly Collapse

Global clothing companies are not complying with a plan to ensure better safety in Bangladesh garment factories following the deadly collapse.

In this Monday, Feb. 6, 2017 photo, a Bangladeshi boy processes animal hide inside a factory at the highly polluted Hazaribagh tannery area in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Hazardous, heavily polluting tanneries with workers as young as 14 supplied leather to companies that make shoes and handbags for Western brands, a nonprofit group that investigates supply chains says.

Bangladesh's Grim Leather Trade

Alleged abuses have plagued Hazaribagh, the hub of Bangladesh's leather industry with more than 150 tanneries.

In this April 25, 2013, file photo, Bangladeshi people gather as rescuers look for survivors and victims at the site of a building that collapsed a day earlier, in Savar, near Dhaka, Bangladesh. A Bangladesh court on Monday, July 18, 2016, indicted 41 people for murder in the 2013 deaths of more than 1,100 people in the collapse of a building that housed five garment factories outside the capital.

41 Indicted on Murder Charges for Factory Collapse

An investigation found that owners and managers had forced the workers to enter the building the day of the collapse despite their unwillingness to work after the building had developed major cracks a day before.