Bangladesh will seek an explanation from the US regarding Kalpana Akhtar

Bangladesh will seek an explanation from the United States regarding garment worker leader Kalpana Akhter. And the state minister of foreign affairs does not see any reasonable reason to worry about the garment sector of Bangladesh in the country’s new initiative to improve the rights of workers and their standards worldwide. Shahriar Alam. The state minister said these things in response to a question from journalists at the briefing of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday (November 21). US President Joe Biden has recently signed a new memorandum on the rights of workers worldwide and improving their standards. After the release of the memorandum, Foreign Minister Anthony Blinken mentioned Kalpana Akhter, a Bangladeshi garment worker and leader, in his speech. The state minister was asked to know the position of the government in this regard. In response, Shahriar Alam said, I am clearly saying, these comments were not focused on garments. Anthony Blinken’s speech was at the APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) summit. It is not just the garment industry or the textile industry or any bilateral meeting with Bangladesh. The state minister said that Kalpana Akter was arrested once in Bangladesh in 2010. He is not alone, several other labor leaders along with him were arrested while protesting while working. Later their case was withdrawn. After the Rana Plaza collapse, when some buyers in the West refused to pay financial compensation to those factories, Kalpana Akhtar and a couple of others traveled to the US to protest and were arrested there. He said, “We will seek clarification from the US that Kalpana Akhtar has said that she was threatened because of us or by someone else.” We will certainly ask this of the United States in the next discussion. Shahriar Alam said that Kalpana Akhtar has been leading an NGO to ensure labor rights in Bangladesh with great success. As far as we have looked in the records of the Bangladesh Police, in the records of the law enforcement forces, or even in your open source, you have so many journalists. He said, but he never told anyone in Bangladesh about the threat he felt in the past. Of course, we would like to know how true it is. Although the name of Kalpana Akhtar was mentioned, Shahriar Alam said that the US foreign minister’s statement was not Bangladesh-centric and said that this statement is not Bangladesh-centric at all. He did not make any statement referring to Bangladesh. He said, Kalpana Akhter is a garment leader or worker in Bangladesh. Mentioning the country mentioned two-three different countries, but did not mention any issue of Bangladesh, it was not specific to garment industry or textile industry at all. The Minister of State said, “It was to restore the strength of labor rights within the United States. There are many challenges in different countries, women workers are paid less than men. I have to say that there they have taken an administrative step, where they are authorizing ambassadors in embassies, on labor issues. To communicate with those host countries. Shahriar Alam said, it is a global initiative. Through which they are assigning additional responsibilities to ambassadors in their embassies, but in the case of Bangladesh, the United States has already appointed a labor attaché subject to negotiation. This information, if anything is not presented correctly, creates some confusion. Shahriar Alam said, but bilateral relations between Bangladesh and the United States have already progressed far. It has been almost a year since the United States appointed a labor attaché, which we authorized and facilitated; Bangladesh has been applauded for this reason. The state minister said that this initiative of the United States regarding the rights of workers worldwide is not a concern for the garment industry of Bangladesh. He said, I think there is no reasonable reason for the garment industry of Bangladesh to be worried about this move.

ABN/SA/JSIM