Child labour in Bangladesh: The dark side of the leather industry

Bangladesh is the world’s second-largest leather-exporting country. A quarter of the country’s leather workers are children, according to a study by the University of Sussex. These youngsters are paid just €35 a month, come into contact with chemicals and work leather with sharp tools, unprotected, for 10 hours a day. Many of them have lost one or both parents and are forced to accept these working conditions to survive or help their families. This despite it being illegal in Bangladesh for children under 14 to work, and for those under 18 to do hazardous jobs. Some 90 percent of tannery workers in Bangladesh die before turning 50, according to a WHO report. FRANCE 24’s Lisa Gamonet, Navodita Kumari, Nabeel Ahmed and Shehab Sumon report.