In a statement on June 12, World Day Against Child Labor, Diyarbakır Bar Association’s Children’s Rights Center drew attention to the scale of child labor in Turkey.
The statement noted that according to the Turkish Statistical Institute, TÜİK, there are 1,372,000 registered child workers, but this number reaches 3 to 4 million when unregistered workers are included.
Bar Association Board Member Berivan Zerin stated that child labor is becoming increasingly widespread and that the state is not fulfilling its obligations.
According to OECD data, 6.5 million children in Turkey live in “extreme poverty”; one in five children is malnourished, and one in four goes to school hungry.
Berivan Zerin pointed out that children working in Vocational Training Centers (MESEM) are particularly at risk, revealing that nine students died in workplace accidents during the 2023-2024 period and a total of 19 children in the first 106 days of 2025.
Berivan Zerin pointed out that child labor is normalized in society under the guise of a “master-apprentice relationship.”
Source: ANF News
