Living with their grandmother at Khagrachhari, Reena's children were studying in school with the money Reena sent from Dhaka. But now she cannot send money because the garment factory, which employed her, is laid off.

The factory on Green Road was shut down recently without any notice. Even the factory owner did not pay salaries of the workers, mostly women.

"Now the future of my children is totally dark, because I cannot send a single paisa for them," said Reena, one of many retrenched garment workers.

Minu Akter, a worker of Fayenaz Garments, faced similar experience. On the pay day in last July, the workers came to collect their wages only to find the factory closed.

Minu alleged the factory management did not pay three months' wages to the workers. "Had they told us before, we would have looked for jobs elsewhere," she said.

Now Minu's landlord is threatening to evict her, as she could not pay the rent.

Not only Reena and Minu, a large number of garment workers have been rendered jobless at the closure of garment factories in recent months.

According to National Garment Workers' Federation, Bangladesh has now around 3,600 garment factories, 2,000 of them are situated in Dhaka and its adjacent areas.

Around 200 factories has been closed in the city recently, said Aminul Haque, president of the federation. He could not say why these factories were closed.

As the post-MFA (Multi-Fibre Arrangement) era has just begun in the New Year, many garment workers fear for their job despite optimistic views of experts.

Aminul does not agree with the experts who believe the readymade garment industry in Bangladesh would not be affected much in the post-MFA era.

"It depends on how the government handles the situation. The situation can be managed if the business in European market is ensured," he said.

"But of course there will be some adverse effects and some workers would definitely become jobless," the labour leader said.

The workers expressed their anxiety over the possible closure of more factories. Some of them believe big factories will survive but the small ones will not.

The retrenched workers of some of the laid off garment factories in the city have meantime sought legal help to get their outstanding wages.

Bangladesh Legal Aid Services Trust extended legal assistance to the workers of 10 factories to file case in the labour court.

"We know we won't get our jobs back, but at least they (factory owners) should pay the wages we earned," said Ayesha Khatun, another worker.