The Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions of Turkey (DİSK) published child labour report of Turkey on the eve of April 23 national sovereignty and children's day.
The report reveals that at least 2 million children are forced to work in Turkey according to the statistics of 2016, indicating that child labour is clearly seen as cheap labour supply for the employers.
According to the child labour report, up-to-date statistics on child labour in Turkey is only available for the age group 15-17. The current statistics fall short of children working in seasonal and agricultural labour below the age 15.
The current statistic also does not include, the report warns, children working in the tourism sector as interns, and children forced to work as part of their apprenticeship education in vocational and technical schools since these children are not "legally" considered as child labourers.
The report indicates that child labour rates increased since 2012, rising up from 601 thousand for 15-17 years old children in 2012 to 709 thousand in 2016.
APPRENTICESHIP BECOMES A COVER FOR CHILD LABOUR
Referencing to a parliamentary question, the child labour report reveals that, in 2015, there were 401 thousand and 464 child labourers forced to work as apprentices till the age of 17.
The data published by the Social Security Institution of Turkey (SGK) shows that there were 1 million and 170 thousand child labourers forced to work as apprentices in 2016.
These data reveal that the total number of child labourers in Turkey is approximately 2 million.
EIGHTY PERCENT OF CHILD LABOURERS WORK INFORMALLY
Informal child labour is prevalent both in rural and urban settings. According to the statistics of Turkish Statistical Institution (TÜİK) for 2016, 78 percent of child labourers work informally. In 2016, the number of child labourers between the ages 15 and 17 was 708 thousand, 558 thousand of which was working informally. In other words, eight-tenths of the whole child labourers work informally.
TURKEY SCORES THE WORST IN EUROPE IN TERMS OF CHILD POVERTY
Child poverty is among the main reasons of the increase in child labour, the child labour report says. Turkey has the highest rate of child poverty, with 25,3 percent, compared to other European countries.
56 CHILDREN DIED AT WORK IN 2016
According to the data of Worker's Health and Work Safety Assembly of Turkey (İSİG), there has been a dramatic increase in the number of child victims of occupational murder in recent years. While 32 children died in occupational murders in 2012, this number rose up to 56 children in 2016.
