IKEA Paying $6.5M to Compensate Prisoners for Forced Labor

In what CNN is describing as a "landmark move," IKEA will pay about $6.5 million to compensate the former prisoners who were forced to build furniture for the company in communist East Germany during the Cold War era. The money will be put in a government fund for victims of forced labor under the communist dictatorship, the first such payment of its kind. "We deeply regret that products for IKEA were also produced by political prisoners in the GDR," says an exec at IKEA Germany, referring to the German Democratic Republic, or former East Germany. "Since it became known, IKEA has consistently worked to clarify the situation. We have given our word to those affected that we will participate in providing support. We therefore welcome the implementation of the hardship fund and are pleased to be able to keep our promise."

Many of the affected prisoners in East Germany were political dissidents imprisoned for their opposition to the communist state. The political prisoners were forced to work in the factories of the company's East German suppliers as late as the 1980s, Le Monde reports. The fund for victim compensation must still be approved by Germany's parliament, but DW reports that step is considered a formality. IKEA's payment to the fund is voluntary. (More IKEA stories.)