Published on 12:00 AM, January 13, 2017

NUMBERS 54

Police and fear stalk the streets of Dhaka as garment workers fight for more than £54 a month in Dhaka. Last month, tens of thousands of workers clocked in and then immediately returned to the streets, joining the largest protests since those that followed the collapse in 2013 of the Rana Plaza clothing factory, causing more than 1,100 deaths.

The unrest over rates of pay forced around 50 factories to shut for more than a week and led to dozens of arrests and the "temporary dismissal" of at least 1,500 workers. Last week, those workers still willing to huddle in Ashulia's streets during their lunch breaks were swapping stories about the people dismissed. The pay rise they wanted was a tripling of the minimum salary of 5,300 taka (£54) a month, currently the lowest minimum wage in the world, to 16,000 takas.

Source: The Guardian