Amnesty International accused major global fashion brands on Thursday of benefiting from the repression of garment workers in South Asia, saying factory owners and governments in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka are complicit in widespread labour rights abuses.

In two reports released the same day, the human rights group said the industry’s business model relies on a “grossly underpaid, overworked and mostly female workforce” whose right to organise is routinely violated. “An unholy alliance of fashion brands, factory owners and the governments … is propping up an industry known for its endemic human rights abuses,” Amnesty Secretary General Agnès Callamard said.

The reports — Stitched Up and Abandoned by Fashion — draw on research conducted between September 2023 and August 2024, including 88 interviews across 20 factories. Amnesty documented systematic anti-union practices, alleging that employers harass, threaten and dismiss workers who attempt to form or join unions. Workers in all four countries described a pervasive climate of fear.

Amnesty also said many global brands are failing to take adequate steps to safeguard workers’ rights. A survey sent in November 2023 to 21 major companies received full responses from Adidas, ASOS, Fast Retailing, Inditex, Otto Group and Primark. Others, including M&S and Walmart, provided partial information, while firms such as Boohoo, H&M, Desigual, Next and Gap did not respond.

In India, the organisation highlighted the precarious situation of home-based garment workers, who perform embroidery and finishing work but are excluded from legal recognition as employees, leaving them without social protections or the right to unionise.

Women — the majority of the region’s garment workforce — face additional obstacles, including routine physical, verbal and sexual harassment and little access to independent complaint mechanisms. Amnesty said gender discrimination, reinforced by wider social hierarchies, keeps women out of management roles and deters them from reporting abuse.

A union organiser in Pakistan told Amnesty she was repeatedly threatened with dismissal for encouraging colleagues to organise after her complaints of physical and verbal abuse were ignored by management.