KARACHI:
Rising temperatures driven by climate change are pushing thousands of Karachi’s textile and garment workers into dangerous heat exposure, where employees describe fainting, dehydration, headaches and physical collapse inside factories that lack basic cooling, ventilation or medical support.
A new investigative report by Climate Rights International (CRI) – “They Don’t See What Heat Does to Our Bodies”: Climate Change, Labour Rights, and the Cost of Fashion in Karachi, Pakistan – warns that many workplaces grow hotter than the temperature outside, especially during peak summer months, when machinery, fabric and body heat compound to create suffocating indoor conditions.
Factories interviewed for the study continue to maintain full production shifts even when temperatures reach extreme levels, and the workers most affected are often the ones least equipped to lose wages to illness or recovery time. “Inside, it feels like my body is melting and my heartbeat is running too fast, slowing down is not allowed, so we just push through until we can’t stand anymore,” Muhammad Hunain, a textile mill labourer described his condition on work. His statement captures what many others referenced as a constant physical negotiation: continue working despite dizziness, or stop for a moment and risk wage deduction, supervisor reprimand or unpaid time away from the machine.
The report paints a troubling picture of long hours, sometimes 10 to 12 hours per day, spent standing at machines while the air remains still and dense. Industrial units often keep windows shut to limit dust exposure, but the sealed environment traps heat and humidity. Hydration is not discouraged in policy, but in practice, many employees said water access is limited, monitored or simply too unclean to drink safely.
Heat stress symptoms described in the document include dizziness, blurred vision, nausea and swelling of legs, all medically consistent with prolonged exposure to high temperature. Researchers warn that Karachi’s labour force is already working on the frontlines of climate change, and without intervention, the human cost may escalate in the coming years.
According to the report, fainting incidents are not isolated, and recovery is typically unpaid, with workers sent home without treatment or complaint documentation. For those earning between Rs32,000 and Rs40,000 a month, even one missed shift destabilises an already fragile household budget. Researchers linked several facilities where these accounts emerged to major global clothing brands, including H&M, Zara (Inditex), GAP, Mango, ASOS, C&A, NA-KD, NEXT and IKEA, using public sourcing disclosures. All except IKEA are official signatories to the International Accord, a safety framework designed after the 2013 Rana Plaza disaster in Bangladesh, yet only NEXT currently issues supplier guidelines explicitly addressing heat risk.
H&M has signalled that heat-safety policy updates may be introduced in 2026, but for now, most factories continue under general compliance codes that do not directly recognise extreme heat as a workplace hazard. Interviews suggest many factories present better conditions during audits, temporarily increasing fans or circulating clean water shortly before inspections, masking what workers say is their daily reality.
Shaista, a garment worker in a packing department, explained how dehydration becomes a survival strategy, not a choice. “Supervisors don’t like workers going again and again. So people avoid drinking water.” The consequences extend beyond heat exhaustion: reduced water intake increases the risk of kidney complications, muscle fatigue and slowed cognitive capacity. The report notes that real-time temperature monitoring is absent in most industrial spaces, and workers have limited ways to track how much heat their bodies absorb over hours of repetitive motion. Medical rooms, where they exist, often lack trained staff, and no structured emergency response plan is documented for heatstroke-like symptoms.
Pakistan’s labour laws technically guarantee a safe indoor environment, clean drinking water and protection from occupational harm, but enforcement remains inconsistent. Karachi’s urban heat island, concrete density and population load mean the city absorbs and radiates heat longer than surrounding regions.
With Pakistan warming faster than the global average, experts warn that industrial labour will become one of the country’s most exposed people. The report argues that climate-driven heat is no longer a temporary seasonal threat; it is a structural condition reshaping factory floors, productivity and human wellbeing.
A third worker summarised the urgency with blunt honesty: “We are not asking for luxury… just air to breathe, water to drink, and a break when our bodies cannot take more.”
