2023-08-18 20:23:22
The Swedish clothing giant H&M announced Friday that it will gradually cease its activities in Burma, after the publication by an NGO of a report denouncing violations of workers’ rights in textile factories in the country.
“After careful consideration, we have taken the decision to phase out our activities in Burma,” H&M said in an email to AFP.
Since the military coup in 2021 and the repression of the protest by the army, a plethora of foreign companies have chosen to leave the country under pressure from NGOs which are pushing them to review their activities there.
“We have been following developments in Burma very closely and are finding it increasingly difficult to conduct our operations in accordance with our standards and requirements,” said the company, the world’s second-largest group. for textile manufacturing.
“The situation of workers is getting worse”
A report published this week by the NGO Resource Center on Business and Human Rights found 156 cases of labor and human rights violations between February 2022 and 2023. In the same period a year earlier, 56 cases had been identified.
“In other words, the situation for garment workers is getting worse, and rapidly,” the report noted. Of a total of 212 cases of abuse traced by the NGO since February 2021, twenty are linked to H&M suppliers.
According to the multinational, the group does not have any textile production factories in Burma, but sources its supplies from 26 suppliers in the country with a total of 39 factories.
From Haiti to Cambodia, via Burma, textile employees – who work in very precarious conditions – regularly demand wage increases, especially during demonstrations, some of which are violently repressed.
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