The temporary closure of High Streets and malls throughout Europe and North America is causing financial hardship that some brands will never recover from. But the knock-on effect stretches far beyond Western shores. Arguably those hit hardest are the garment-factory workers in South Asia who are reporting $3.02 billion dollars of cancelled or suspended orders from retailers.
Read MoreIt was October 2016 when a BBC Panorama investigation uncovered Syrian refugee children working in garment factories in Turkey, for high-street brands such as Marks and Spencer and ASOS. The documentary showed that there were children as young as 13 being forced to work 60 hour weeks for as little as 70p an hour. As a group, refugees are particularly vulnerable to exploitation, as Peter McAlister, head of the Ethical Trading Initiative, has pointed out.
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