Bangladesh is a major player in the global leather trade.

In the 2011 to 2012 fiscal year, Bangladesh's tanneries exported close to USD 663 million in leather and leather products to around 70 countries. By the 2022 to 2023 fiscal year, that number had grown to USD 1.25 billion.

The Bangladesh Labour Foundation reports, "Bangladesh annually produces 350 million square feet of leather, with a significant portion exported to meet foreign demand".

Australia has a direct trade relationship with Bangladesh. A study from the Bangladesh Enterprise Institute (BEI) noted: "Along with bovine and buffalo hides, goat and sheepskins, Bangladesh also re-exports some kangaroo hides (pickled or wet-blue) after processing, which is imported from Australia... The finished Kangaroo leather and leather goods are mostly exported to Japan. Bangladesh also imports some ostrich leather from Australia for producing high-quality bags and wallets and re-exports to Australia." 

Pollution from Bangladesh leather tanneries

The pollution and hazardous working conditions inherent to tanning leather are dramatically amplified in Hazaribagh, Bangladesh's leather-producing hub:

Human Rights Watch reported, "The wastewater that pours off tannery floors and into Hazaribagh's open gutters and eventually Dhaka's main river contains, among other substances, animal flesh, sulfuric acid, chromium, and lead. The government estimates that about 21,000 cubic meters of untreated effluent is released each day in Hazaribagh. Government officials and tannery industry representatives told Human Rights Watch that no Hazaribagh tannery has an effluent treatment plant to treat its waste, which can have many thousands of times the legally permitted concentrations of pollutants."

Dr. Siobhan O'Sullivan, Senior Lecturer in Social Policy at UNSW, notes that in Hazaribagh, Bangladesh: "untreated waste from leather tanneries reportedly runs through open canals while inside the tanneries the work is dangerous and child labor is common."

Leather tanneries, leather workshops, and slaughterhouses in Bangladesh: Child labour and hazardous working conditions

Child labour and hazardous working conditions are widespread across Bangladesh's leather tanneries, leather workshops, and slaughterhouses.

The United States Department of Labor released a report titled '2024 List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor', flagging 'leather', 'garments', and 'footwear' for child labour in Bangladesh.

The Canadian Association for Research on Work and Health reports, "Tannery workers in Bangladesh face exploitative conditions, enduring prolonged hazardous labor, inadequate wages, and denial of fundamental labor rights, leading to occupational health issues and modern slavery indicators."

A July 2021 study led by the Institute of Development Studies, titled 'Mapping of Children Engaged in the Worst Forms of Child Labour in the Supply Chain of the Leather Industry in Bangladesh', found, "While Bangladesh's Minister for Labour and Employment said in February 2021 that Bangladesh's formal leather sector is child labour free, the new study [published July 2021] has found widespread use of child labour in almost every process of the supply chain (96 percent) of the 'hidden' informal leather industry."

A report on the study by Leather International confirmed "researchers found children aged seven to 17 working 12 to 14 hours, six days a week in... animal slaughter and skinning... dyeing, waste disposal and manufacturing of leather products and by-products such as glue and meat."

Country Coordinator for CLARISSA (Child Labour: Action-Research-Innovation in South and South-Eastern), Jiniya Afroze, stated, "The children we've spoken to face the stark choice to undertake extremely dangerous work in the leather industry or starve. They are missing education and are at risk on a daily basis, many working with dangerous acid, cutting machines or carrying heavy loads."

In 2024, a research and evidence paper by the Institute of Development Studies, titled 'Worst Forms of Child Labour in the Bangladesh Leather Industry: A Synthesis of Five Years of Research' was released as part of the CLARISSA programme. 

The researchers found that the worst forms of child labour were "designed into the business model operationally and culturally".

The study identified "107 micro-processing steps in the manufacture of leather gloves, shoes, moneybags, jackets, and belts", and found that "103 of these processes (96 per cent) involved children." Additional quotes from the study are below:

"Hazardous tasks for children include carrying heavy loads, manually dyeing leather using chemicals, working under the hot sun, and operating cutting tools and heavy machinery without safety measures".

"WFCL [worst forms of child labour] were found in mechanical processes (e.g. cattle rearing, drying, selling, slaughtering, bone crushing, transporting crust leather), chemical processes (e.g. washing of raw skin hide, preserving skin hides), and supporting processes (e.g. transporting and trading wet blue leather)."

"It is normal work culture to pressure children to speed up, reprimand them publicly, and physically abuse them to increase production output."

"Children also have to withstand verbal and physical abuse, as well as – in the case of girls – sexual harassment."

"Poverty is the overwhelming driving force for most families."

"Health crises lead to financial catastrophe for families, which in turn leads children directly to work."

"Often, adults who have worked in this industry become so physically 'clapped out' that they are not able to work, so they send their children to work, who in turn work for whatever years they can, and then they have to send their children to work".

"Most children were working at least 12 hours a day (often more, and sometimes full double shifts of over 16 or 18 hours), six days per week (some children worked six and a half or seven days per week). Many girls were also doing housework at home, and a typical day can involve 15 hours' work."

Dr Jody Aked, a technical specialist with the Institute of Development Studies who worked on the report, said, "The children... are on as little as £30 a month and working seven days a week in peak season in shifts that just run on and on... Most of the child labourers surveyed had lost one or both parents and often went to work hungry."