YANGON/DHAKA/BANGKOK— Zarchi Lwin pawned her only two gold bangles for $140 when the owner of the Myanmar factory where she sewed winter coats for British retailer Next Plc shut it down after orders dried up due to the coronavirus.workers across Asia who have been laid off, according to the Workers Rights Consortium, a labor rights campaign group, and are now struggling to survive with little welfare support, mired in debt and in many cases reliant on food handouts.
After non-essential stores were closed in many countries and people were told to stay at home to prevent further spread of the disease, international retailers from ASOS Plc to New Look said they cancelled orders withmakers. Factory owners in Myanmar, Bangladesh and Cambodia immediately shut down thousands of factories and sent home workers with little or no pay.
Some orders have been trickling back. Swedish fashion retailer H&M said it only paused orders for two weeks at the height of the virus outbreak. U.S.-based Walmart Inc, the world’s largest retailer, said it placed new orders with Asian manufacturers last month.
In that country’s capital, Phnom Penh, 39-year-old Rom Phary said she and her husband had racked up $550 of debt and interest since she lost her factory job in early March, several times her monthly salary. She said she and her family are living off rice donated by an NGO, the Center for Alliance of Labor and Human Rights, which is working in Cambodia. Phary said she persuaded her landlord to let her stay rent-free rather than forcing the family to return to relatives in the provinces.