Transparentem has worked hard to help alleviate serious environmental and human rights abuses within Bangladesh’s leather-tanning industry. Our first investigation documented pollution, child labor, and hazardous conditions in Hazaribagh, then the center of Bangladesh’s tanning operations. Environmental researchers and activists had labelled the neighborhood one of “the world’s 10 most polluted places.” In April 2017, just two weeks after Transparentem disclosed the investigation, the government of Bangladesh fulfilled a years-old court order and shut down roughly 150 tanneries in Hazaribagh. Many of these companies moved their operations to a tannery estate in Savar, where we continued to monitor ongoing labor and environmental problems in the industry. Transparentem’s 2020 survey of Savar tannery workers collected evidence of exploitative working conditions, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2019, 2020, and 2022 Transparentem disclosed investigations revealing evidence that migrant workers from Bangladesh—who are particularly vulnerable to exploitation and forced labor—paid excessive recruitment-related fees to secure work at garment factories in Malaysia. More information about these investigations can be found here.