According to the ‘Alliance’, a group of North American buyers, only 24 garment factories in Bangladesh are fully remediated, while more than half of the initially-identified flaws have been repaired. The group of 28 brands including Gap and Wal-mart said it has so far assessed fire, electrical and structural integrity of a total of 700 units.

The group also said explaining the progress half-way through its five-year tenure, that it also referred 36 factories to the official review panel after finding them ‘structurally unsafe,’ while suspended business with 77 units that failed to carry out the required remediation.

According to Ian Spaulding, Senior Advisor to the Alliance, a total of 24 factories have been fully remediated. We have verified that more than 49 per cent of all required repairs have been completed till date. That means that out of 48,500 issues identified during its inspections, more than 23,000 have been verified as being addressed or closed out, he explained.

After the Rana Plaza building collapse, global brands formed two groups-Accord and Alliance- following the outrage and assessed some 2,000 garment factories out of 4,500 garment units.