Statement on the twelfth anniversary of the Ali Enterprises fire

This fire and the high death toll were the direct result of the extreme negligence towards garment workers which spans all the way from the factory management, who let people work in a factory without functioning emergency exits, to the top of the supply chain, where brands lazily relied on faulty social auditing reports. One such report made only weeks before the fire, approved the factory as living up to international standards. Functional alarm systems and escape routes would have enabled the full workforce to flee the factory in safety. Today, we remember and pledge that we will not forget.

Ten years of campaigning by Pakistani unions and international unions brought the International Accord for Health and Safety in the Textile and Garment Industry to Pakistan as of 2023. This groundbreaking and time-tested programme will make factories in the supply chains of brands that sign the Pakistan programme of the Accord safe, through inspection, remediation processes, training and a complaints mechanism. It is important that over time this agreement covers all workers in the supply chains of signatory brands. 

To date 128 brands have signed the Pakistan programme, including major brands such as H&M, Inditex, GAP, and Adidas. Yet several apparel and home textile brands with major production volumes in Pakistan continue to drag their feet, such as Levi’s, IKEA, Kontoor Brands (Lee, Wranger), Target USA, and Nike. These brands should learn the lessons from this tragedy and finally heed unions’ and labour advocates' calls to sign the Accord.  

Nasir Mansoor, secretary general of the National Trade Union Federation in Pakistan said: "Twelve years have passed since the Ali Enterprises tragedy, yet there has been only very limited improvement in ensuring the safety of workers in factories. The Pakistan Accord programme now has started, but at a very slow pace.  Neither local factories nor international fashion brands have learned lessons from this incident: workers remain unregistered, are paid wages far too low to live on, are forced to work overtime, and are prevented from forming or joining trade unions. Even today, the German brand KiK, the single buyer from Ali Enterprises at the time of the death of 260 workers continues to exploit workers in the factories from which it sources its products. We demand that that international fashion brands immediately implement both domestic and international labour laws within their supply chains."

Twelve years ago, on 11 September 2012, over 250 people were killed in the garment industry’s most deadly factory fire ever. The Ali Enterprises factory in Karachi, Pakistan, burned to the ground with many workers trapped inside. On this day we commemorate all workers who didn’t survive and our thoughts are with all grieving families. Our commitment is to ensure this can never happen again.