Child Labor in Turkey
Anna Matenaer
Josh Johnson
The Problem
• Turkey ranks 3rd in number
hours children work each week
• Females work an average of 30
hours per week
• Males work an average of 25
each week
The Problem
• About 320,000 children are
currently forced into work
• Roughly a third are not
receiving an education
• Nearly 30,000 have never
been enrolled into a school
The Problem
• Child labor occurs in Turkey because of:
– Poverty/ Unemployment
– Migration
– Lack of sufficient work regulations
• The main form of work children are forced
into is agricultural work, but they also work in
manufacturing and trade
• The children usually work for no pay
• There is no welfare system to protect them
The Problem
• The bad economy that causes poverty will not
improve if the rate of child labor increases
• Because children are forced into labor, they
will not receive proper education and
knowledge on governmental systems
• None of the children forced into labor will be
fit for positions in the government
The Reasons
• Often times the parents force their own
children into labor
• They do this because they are poor and need
to decrease costs
• The children will not see this as wrong
because it is their own parents telling them
what to do
• The parents prevent their children from
opportunities in the future
Not Punished
• Often times child labor takes place on streets
• Very obvious
• Officials do not often recognize it/ it is often
excused
• Example:
• A father forced his son to work as a shoe shiner.
The father and the son both lied to the judge
saying the school wouldn't the admit son. The
judge bought it acquitted the situation.
The Stats
• A Child Labor Survey in 1999 states: there
about 12,000,000 children between ages 6-14
• 4.2% of these children are economically active
(504,000)
• 27.6% are involved in household related
activities (3,312,000)
• Children under 10 years of age make up 14%
of children in child labor
The Stats
• In 2006, data showed that nearly 1,000,000
children are working
• Among these children, 220,000 children
between ages 6-13 are not registered for
education
• 130,000 of the children are females, while
90,000 are males
The Stats
• Between 1994 and 2006, the percentage of
children forced to work went from 8.5 percent
down to 2.6 percent.
• The Ministry of Labor and Social Security plans
on eliminating the significantly horrible forms
of child slavery by 2015.
Organizations
• Many international organizations that try to
help children being trafficked in Turkey
• Take action with other countries to bring it to
a stop
• Young children are the easiest to exploit, so
they are the main target of the organizations
Children in
Turkey work on
farms or on the
streets to earn
money.
ILO
• International Labor Organization
• World’s largest technical cooperation program
of child labor
• They work all over Europe and Asia
• Minimum Age Convention
– Ratified in 116 countries
• Worst Forms of Child Labor Convention
– 117 countries
ILO Web Doc.
IPEC
• International Program on the
Elimination of Child Labor
• One section dedicated to child
labor in Turkey
• It started out as an awareness
group, then later led into taking
action
• Over 50,000 children helped
since 1992
– 60% put into schools
– 40% have better working
conditions
IPEC Webpage
St. Petersburg City Hall
Officials visiting the
Center for Working
Children in Yalova,
Turkey (IPEC)
IOM
• International
Organization for
Migration
• Launched a campaign
to stop human
trafficking across key
nations
• Now a Turkey helpline
for people being
trafficked and for
victims of trafficking
IOM
Promotion poster for the
Turkish helpline
ILO (International Labor Organization)
• World’s largest technical cooperation program
of child labor
• They work all over Europe and Asia
• Minimum Age Convention
– Ratified in 116 countries
• Worst Forms of Child Labor Convention
– 117 countries
ILO Web Doc.
IPEC
• International Program on the Elimination of
Child Labor
• One section dedicated to child labor in Turkey
• It started out as an awareness group, then
later led into taking action
• Over 50,000 children helped since 1992
– 60% put into schools
– 40% have better working conditions
IPEC Webpage
IOM
• International Organization for Migration
• Launched a campaign to stop human
trafficking across key nations
• Now a Turkey helpline for people being
trafficked and for victims of trafficking
IOM
Action Plan
• Government and Organizations Enforce
Education
• Use more funds towards education
• So children will be fit to take governmental
positions as they become adults
• So child labor does not become the norm and
continue in the future
Action Plan
• Construct more laws against child labor
• Create laws that provide assistance to those
who have been recently enslaved
• To help them adjust to normal society
• Create organizations that provide job training
and homes to those recently enslaved
• Make the punishment worse for those who
enslave children
Action Plan
• Create awareness throughout Turkey about child
slavery
• Organization should not just create awareness in
Turkey, but also in other countries
• Explain ways on how it can be prevented:
- Create organizations that help traffickers gain a
conscious and to realize how wrong their actions are
- Educate officials on how to recognize it
- How to stop it
- Inform the officials about the punishments for
enslaving children
Citation
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