Rana Plaza Donors Trust Fund has finally met its target of $30 million, required to compensate all the victims and their families of the industrial tragedy, said a statement of International Labour Organisation (ILO). Rana Plaza Coordination Committee, representing all industry stakeholders, announced on Monday that it has raised the fund, required for ensuring full, fair and equitable payment to all victims in the coming weeks. According to the statement, over $27 million had been raised by April 2015, and the committee had paid out 70 per cent of the awards promised to over 2,800 claimants. Further donations, including one significant sum pledged late last week, mean that the target of $30m has been reached, and all final payments can be made now. “This is a milestone, but we still have important business to deal with. We must now work together to ensure that accidents can be prevented in the future, and that a robust national employment injury insurance scheme is established, so that victims of any future accidents will be swiftly and justly compensated and cared for,” said ILO Director-General Guy Ryder. ILO has acted as the chair of Rana Plaza Coordination Committee since its establishment in October 2013. It has supported the committee to design one coordinated arrangement for all victims of the accident, based on ILO Conventions. In January 2014, ILO also established Rana Plaza Donor Trust Fund to support the committee’s effort to finance the scheme, it added. The statement, however, said Bangladesh does not yet have a national employment injury insurance scheme to protect victims of accidents at work, although ILO is now working with the government, employers’ and workers’ organisations, donors and industry partners to establish one. Meanwhile, in a separate statement, Ineke Zeldenrust of Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC) said, “This day has been long in coming. Now that all the families impacted by this disaster will finally receive all the money they are owed, they can finally focus on rebuilding their lives. This is a remarkable moment for justice.” CCC has been campaigning since the disaster in April 2013, and demanding the brands and retailers provide compensation to the victims. Since then over one million consumers from across Europe and around the world have joined actions against many of the major high-street companies, whose products were being made in one of the five factories housed in the structurally-compromised building.
