Desperate garment workers cross Padma on crammed ferries to save jobs

Thousands of passengers crossed the Padma river on packed ferries through Munshiganj’s Shimulia on Saturday as workers rushed back to Dhaka to save their jobs in garment factories in and around Dhaka.   

Munshiganj Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 4 April 2020, 05:16 PM
Updated : 4 April 2020, 05:16 PM

The desperate workers from the southern districts did not care about social distancing amid a nationwide shutdown of offices, workplaces and transport services imposed to stem the spread of the coronavirus. 

“People are returning to the capital as some garment factories are reopening in Dhaka,” said GM Ashraful, the in-charge of Mawa Naval Police Camp.

The pressure of passengers was so high in the morning that the ferries did not have any places left for vehicles, he said.

The travellers were taking small passenger carriers, microbuses or motorcycles or whatever means of transport they got from the pier to Dhaka.

The vehicles had to take the Louhojong-Tongibari-Munshiganj-Narayanganj route as the army set up a barricade on the Dhaka-Mawa Expressway.

Police were not hindering the vehicles in Narayanganj. 

On Friday, hundreds of workers started a long journey on foot to Dhaka from Mymensingh on hearing that their factories were reopening.

Facing criticism for the decision to reopen the factories amid risk of contagion, the garment exporters’ lobbying group BGMEA on Saturday night urged its members to keep their plants closed through the nationwide shutdown to April 11.