Detention and Intimidation of Labour Activists in Dhaka
International concern has been sparked by ongoing intimidation of labour activists in Bangladesh. In January 2007 the military-backed ‘caretaker’ government banned all political and trade union activities. Since then many apparel sector union leaders, activists and researchers have been watched, interrogated, and in some cases charged with criminal offences. Some have been forced to go into hiding.
Bangladeshi staff of international organizations have also come under attack. On 24 January Mehedi Hasan, a contractor for the US-based Workers’ Rights Consortium (WRC), was detained by the Bangladesh Intelligence Service and held in custody for three days. He was released on 27 January after a campaign mobilized rapidly by international labour solidarity groups. The WRC, based in Washington, D.C., monitors labour practices at apparel factories on behalf of universities and government entities in the United States. Mr Hasan is responsible for conducting labour rights investigations in the apparel sector, which entails conducting interviews with workers (these take place off-site, rather than at a factory), gathering documentary evidence, and meeting with factory managers.
At almost the same time as Mr. Hasan’s arrest, the WRC’s South East Asia Field Director Mr. Bent Gehrt from Denmark was also detained at Dhaka airport and questioned for about one hour about WRC’s work. From the very detailed knowledge of the interrogators, Mr. Gehrt could see clearly that he had been followed throughout his time in Bangladesh. A local staff person of the American Center for International Labour Solidarity (an affiliate of the AFL-CIO) was also arrested in Bangladesh recently while participating in a worker rights clinic.
Sources: Workers’ Rights Consortium, 25 January 2008; Labour Behind the Label (LBL), 5 February 2008