NOT SO MIRACULOUS: Reshma Begum’s survival 17 days after a factory collapse was a hoax, co-workers say. (AP)
A Bangladeshi factory worker who became a symbol of hope when she was pulled from the rubble 17 days after a building collapse has been called a fraud by her co-workers.
Nineteen-year-old seamstress Reshma Begum’s feel-good story may be a hoax, Britain’s Sunday Mirror reports.
A survivor from the April 24 Rana Plaza collapse, which killed more than 1,100 people, claims he worked alongside Begum.
“We escaped together,” he told the paper. “We both walked away from the rubble. The next time I saw her was on TV 17 days later. They said it was a miracle — but it was a fake.”
The co-worker’s name was not published, and the paper wrote that he has gone into hiding for fear of reprisals.
Begum, meanwhile, has been released from the hospital and rewarded with a new job — at a five-star hotel.
She’s also been given a nearly seven-fold raise — to $450 a month, compared with the $65 she earned at the factory.