Laura Stefanut

is a Bucharest-based journalist, and a 2019 Milena Jesenská fellow at the Institute for Human Science, Vienna. Laura’s stories about the eastern European garment industry have appeared in outlets like Reuters, Balkan Insight, and Arte TV. She is currently working on a book about EU garment workers and publishes at the national newspaper Libertatea.

Articles

Cover for: Made in the EU

Made in the EU

Why workers are fleeing Romania’s garment industry

‘Sweatshops’ are usually associated with labour outsourced to east- and south-east Asia, but they exist inside the EU too. Gruelling working conditions in Romania’s low-pay garment industry, which supplies clothes for mid-market and luxury retailers alike, force many people to go abroad in search of a real living wage.