2 million child workers in Turkey

The Communist Party of Turkey released an assessment on child labour in Turkey, on November 20, the Universal Children's Day, with calling on the people to struggle for the prohibition of child labour
Tuesday, 21 November 2017 20:37

As November 20 marks the United Nations-led Universal Children’s Day, the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) continues its works to ban the child labour across the country.

The TKP has recently released an assessment on child labour with data showing the terrible conditions for children in the fields of employment, education, health and social life in Turkey.

NEARLY 2 MILLION CHILDREN FORCED TO WORK IN TURKEY

Although Turkey's Labour Law Article 71 apparently prohibits the employment of children who have not completed the age of 15, the number of child workers under 15 is not clear. However, nearly 2 millions of children are working as registered and unregistered workers.

The TKP shows that the number of child workers under 15 is not clear albeit many children are forced to work as seasonal workers within the sectors of agriculture and household service. As Turkey’s Ministry of Labour and Social Security says the number of workers under the age of 15 is around 100,000, some research shows that the number reached up to 708,000 in 2016.  

Of all several hundreds of thousands of child workers, only 150,000 is registered as insured employees. According to the Turkish Statistical Institute, 78% of child workers are unregistered. 56 children lost their lives as a result of occupational murders.  

The TKP assessment demonstrates that %55 of Syrian refugees in Turkey is in the age group of 0-18. While almost one million Syrian children should receive primary education, only a quarter of them can go to primary schools in Turkey.

The assessment shows that the children are forced to work mostly in the fields of agriculture and seasonal works, in industrial regions or within service sector in summer time under the pretext of trainee or apprentice employees.

POOR EDUCATION, HIGH BABY MORTALITY RATE AND CHILD MARRIAGES UNDER ISLAMIZED CAPITALISM

The TKP sets forth that child labour stems from capitalist implementations as unemployment, poverty and exploitation are further increasing in the country. The assessment indicates the explicit role of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) which leads Turkey’s scandalous Religious Affairs Directorate (Diyanet) to talk about the issues regarding child labour.

Turkey’s baby mortality rate is 12 per thousand while the expected figure is 5 per thousand in accordance to national income. Educational expenses, including educational tools and school bus services, are very high, culminating in unqualified education in the country. According to the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment, Turkey is very poor in educational quality as it became the 50th country among the 77 countries in the list in 2016.

Islamisation of the country has further escalated child marriages, showing that 18% of total marriages is correspondent to child marriage. The rate of child abuse and violence has also escalated in recent years.       

WORLDWIDE FIGURES: 152 MILLIONS OF CHILD WORKERS

The TKP assessment also suggests statistical data regarding the child labour across the globe, according to which, the number of children workers is at least 152 million. The TKP states that children are forced to work in many fields such as cobalt mines, cacao, coffee and hazelnut fields around the world, revealing the conditions of Turkey’s exploited child workers as the country is the largest hazelnut producer in the world.

It is already known that Turkey’s Syrian refugee children workers are forced work in famous textile brands such as Marks & Spencer, Asos, Zara and Mango.

TKP: CHILD LABOUR MUST BE BANNED

The TKP points out that even though the Turkish Constitution describes all the people under the age of 18 as children, the Labour Law contradicts the Constitution, dividing them as “child workers” under 15 and 'young workers' between 15 and 18.

The Communist Party of Turkey concludes that it will continue to struggle against the exploitation of children following its previous declaration, "The child labour must be banned".