In Islamist Turkey, Syrian children sew in sweatshops to survive, while killing EU manufacturing.

In Islamist Turkey, Syrian children sew in sweatshops to survive, while killing EU manufacturing. (Reuters).

To stem the flow of migrants to Europe, Turkey agreed to house and protect those Europe ejects. But Ankara is proving unable to protect all its Syrian refugee children. Many work illegally, including in the $40 billion textiles industry.

Over a few days in April and May, Reuters met 13 Syrian children in three Turkish cities who said they have jobs making clothes or shoes, even though Turkey bans children under 15 from working. Another four who were older than 15 said they worked up to 15 hours a day, six days a week, despite a law that says those up to 17 can only work 40 hours weekly. Dozens more children who were working were unwilling to talk.

In March, Brussels and Ankara agreed a deal that allows Europe to send back to Turkey migrants who came through the country on their way to Europe. Brussels has pledged up to 6 billion euros ($6.6 billion) to help migrants and refugees, and the deal states that when people are returned, they will be “protected in accordance with the relevant international standards.”

The European Union says Turkey is a safe country: In April, European Council President Donald Tusk called Turkey “the best example in the entire world of how to treat refugees.”

The United States is not so sure. Turkey’s “efforts to protect the growing and highly vulnerable refugee and migrant communities in the country remain inadequate,” the State Department said in a July report.

And rights groups say Turkey is far from safe. Groups such as Amnesty International have documented Syrians being shot at by Turkish border guards as they try to cross into Turkey, living in squalor, or deported back into the fighting. And they note Syrian children, who are often unable to get to school in other frontier countries such as Lebanon, are part of the labour force. Hmmmm......Just give the Caliph a few Billion Euro more. Read the full story here.

Pic below: Syrian children making ISIS uniforms in Turkey

Source picture here.

H&M found Syrian refugee children being employed in Turkish factories that supply them.

H&M found Syrian refugee children being employed in Turkish factories that supply them. (MEE).

High-street clothes retailers Next and H&M found Syrian refugee children being employed in Turkish factories that supply them, according to a survey by a British charity released on Monday.

The report by the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, a corporate responsibility watchdog, said both companies had acted to tackle the problem after finding Syrian children working in three of their suppliers.

But the charity warned that for other big brands "refugee workers appear out of sight and out of mind," saying only 10 of the 28 companies surveyed responded fully and five failed to do so at all.

The charity says an estimated 250,000 to 400,000 Syrian refugees are working illegally in Turkey, from around 2.2 million who have fled the almost five-year civil war at home.

It added that the Turkish government's move last month to issue work permits for Syrian refugees would reduce their vulnerability although it warned that "many refugee workers are likely to remain illegal". Read the full story here.

HT and Source:

H&M has found evidence of child labor among #SyriaRefugees working in #Turkey's sweatshops that provide them#Syriahttps://t.co/sSetFzbzrT

— маяковский (@moscow_ghost) February 2, 2016

Related: Syrian child labour, a ticket to Europe

“When I Picture My Future, I See Nothing” - 400,000 Syrian children in Turkey not in school, HRW report says.

“When I Picture My Future, I See Nothing” - 400,000 Syrian children in Turkey not in school, HRW report says. (HD).

More than 400,000 Syrian refugee children in Turkey are unable to attend school despite a Turkish government move allowing them access to the Turkish schooling system, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report.

The U.S.-based rights group cited language barriers, integration issues and financial difficulties as reasons for the poor attendance in a report released Nov. 9 on its website.

As of October 2015, there were approximately 708,000 Syrian refugee children aged 5 to 17 in Turkey, said the 62-page report titled “‘When I Picture My Future, I See Nothing’: Barriers to Education for Syrian Refugee Children in Turkey.”

In 2014-2015, just over 212,000 were enrolled in formal education at the primary and secondary levels, based on Education Ministry data.

The Turkish Education Ministry said it aims to have 270,000 Syrian children in school by January 2016 and 370,000 in school by the end of the 2015-2016 school year, said the report, while citing the number 400,000 as the number out of the education system.

The report said enrollment rates are higher in education centers built in camps near the Syrian border. But a majority of school-aged children are living in cities outside the camps and are forced to work instead of attending school due to economic or language barriers.

Financial hardship was a major obstacle preventing Syrian children from going to class in Turkey, HRW said, with refugees not permitted to work legally and often unable to afford any school fees or transport charges.

Some 32 out of 50 households interviewed cited economic circumstances as a major barrier to both Turkish schools and temporary education centers.

“Parents are often unable to provide for their families on the minimal income they make in the informal labor market and as a result, child labor is rampant among the Syrian refugee population,” HRW said.

Many were also unable to attend school because of the language barrier, while others faced bullying and social integration difficulties. In some cases, they were even turned away, HRW said. Hmmmm.......Syria's Children the 'Dragon Teeth' Read the full report here.

"Advanced Sweatshop Turkey" Child labor and Syrian refugees children their plight exposed

"Advanced Sweatshop Turkey" Child labor and Syrian refugees children their plight exposed. By David Lepesca.

The size of a much younger boy, the 14 year old wears a black apron over a red-and-white checked shirt, blue jeans and plastic sandals. Over more than an hour of conversation, his expressions range from exhaustion, to concern, to concentration.

For his nearly 90 hours of weekly labour he earns 25 Turkish lira, or about $0.12 an hour. Sweatshop workers in Bangladesh earn about two dollars a day. In China they make more than four. Zain takes home about a dollar and a half.

“I asked my parents,” he says, “and they told me, according to our situation, the pay is good.” Read their full story here.

Syrian children forced to work in Turkey - 'No Child labor...unless you're a Syrian fugitive'

EU and child labor

Syrian children forced to work in 'Islamist' Turkey - 'No Child labor...unless you're a Syrian fugitive' HT: AlMonitor.


The father of Ismail, a 10-year-old Syrian child, could not enroll his son in Syrian schools in Istanbul because he is unable to pay the tuition fees (an average of $100 per semester). 

Instead, he preferred to have Ismail work at a sewing factory that is close to their house in a poor neighborhood, so he could help his parents meet the cost of living in the Turkish city. Ismail, who works from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., is paid 400 Turkish lira per month [$178].

Yet, he is convinced, or rather his parents have convinced him, that his future in the factory will help him have a decent profession, while educational degrees will not help him earn a living in this foreign country.

Under Turkish labor law, children under the age of 15 are prohibited from working and the employer shall be sentenced up to one year in prison or pay a sum ranging between 1,000 [$445] and 1,300 lira [$578]. The law also penalizes the parents of the working child.

Nevertheless, the Turkish government neglects the work being done by Syrian refugees’ children, despite their needs. Hmmm......Keep Turkey out of Europe. Read the full story here.

Video - Teenager School Documentary Project Films Afghan Child Labor: Young Boys at Work in Remote Coal Mines.

Video - Teenager School Documentary Project Films Afghan Child Labor: Young Boys at Work in Remote Coal Mines.(WSJ).KABUL—A video shot by an 18-year-old Afghan in the claustrophobic passages of a coal mine casts new light on one of Afghanistan's most disturbing challenges. Children as young as 10 toil in illegal mines, often for 12 hours a day, activists say. Afghan officials agree the problem is stubborn despite recent efforts. The boys represent a thorny obstacle to the nation's push to transform its antiquated mining industry into a modern economic engine. Their plight is receiving new attention from 18-year-old Fardeen Barakzai. With the backing of the nonprofit school in Kabul where he works, Mr. Barakzai said he traveled through Taliban territory in Bamiyan province to document the conditions of child laborers at an unlicensed coal mine. His film shows young boys coated in coal dust that blotches their skin and stains their teeth. Child labor "is a major, major problem in Afghanistan," said Hervé Berger, head of the United Nations' International Labor Organization in Afghanistan. "Kabul children play, go to school," Mr. Barakzai said. "But there, the children are so dirty, the work is not good. I wanted to show Kabul and all of Afghanistan that this is a big problem for all children." "I saw some children working there loading and unloading donkeys," said Khalilullah, the driver. "All the people working there are extremely poor and don't have any other job to feed their families except working in the mines." By Afghan government estimates, as many as a third of the nation's children—more than 4 million—take part in some sort of work, from picking fruit to mining coal. U.N. officials estimate about 18% of Afghan children work—1.4 million between the ages of 6 and 15.Read the full story here.

Child labor - Lifelong Bonded Labor in Afghan Brick Kilns.

Child labor - Lifelong Bonded Labor in Afghan Brick Kilns.(UN).More than half of workers in brick kilns in Afghanistan are bonded child laborers, the International Labour Organization (ILO) said Wednesday.ILO said in a new survey that 56 percent of kiln workers are found to be under 18, and 47 percent of them are 14 or younger, who are employed to relieve debts owed by their families.
The survey said brick kilns in Afghanistan have relied mostly on bonded families, which had taken loans to pay for basic daily necessities or expenses ranging from medical services to weddings and funerals.The survey, titled Buried in Bricks: Rapid Assessment of Bonded Labor in Afghan Brick Kilns, was conducted from August to October in Nangarhar and Kabul provinces. It found that 64 per cent of families contacted had worked in the brick industry for the past 11 years and the remaining for 35 years.“Faced with never-ending debt, families feel they have to use all available labor, even if it is to their long-term detriment, to make daily ends meet,” the survey said. “It is out of necessity and extreme poverty that households enlist their children from an early age to work in the kilns.”
It said both adult and child laborers work more than 70 hours a week in very harsh conditions. The average daily wage for an adult is up to 8.50 dollars and about 6 dollars for a child.Read the full story here.