{"id":1873,"date":"2016-01-29T13:17:12","date_gmt":"2016-01-29T13:17:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/?p=1873"},"modified":"2016-01-29T13:17:12","modified_gmt":"2016-01-29T13:17:12","slug":"hidden-child-labour-how-syrian-refugees-in-turkey-are-supplying-europe-with-fast-fashion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/?p=1873","title":{"rendered":"Hidden child labour: how Syrian refugees in Turkey are supplying Europe with fast fashion"},"content":{"rendered":"

By FREDERIK JOHANNISSON
\nThe Guardian<\/em><\/p>\n

Thousands of Syrian refugees are working illegally in the Turkish garment industry where child labour, low wages and poor conditions are common<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A 12-year-old Syrian textile worker in a Turkish factory. Photograph: Frederik Johannisson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Bathed in fluorescent lights, the basement room in an Istanbul suburb is completely white. Between mountains of white fabric, Shukri carries clothing to and from the sewing stations and packs white jumpers in boxes. He is clenching a pair of scissors between his teeth looking every bit the seasoned worker, although he is only 12 years old.<\/p>\n

On this weekday morning most Turkish children are in school, but this Syrian boy is busy supplying the 15 sewing machines producing clothing mainly destined for the European market. Shukri, a Syrian Kurd who fled with his uncle from Qamishli in northern Syria 10 months ago, often works 60 hours a week earning 600 Turkish lira (\u00a3138) to help support his family. \u201cI can\u2019t go to school here because of work,\u201d he says, \u201cbut I will go back to school when we return to Syria.\u201d<\/p>\n

The factory\u2019s supervisor agrees that 12 years old is very young to be working so many hours, but shrugs off responsibility. \u201cIt\u2019s not our fault that they need to work,\u201d he says, \u201cthe state failed to provide for them.<\/p>\n

There are no figures on the informal Syrian labour force in Turkey but there are almost 2.3 million registered Syrian refugees<\/a> living in the country, according to the UN, with about 9%<\/a> of them in refugee camps. The rest have to provide for themselves with no financial support from the state. An expert from the Centre for Middle Eastern Strategic Studies has suggested around 250,000 Syrian refugees<\/a> are working illegally in the country, with a recent Human Rights Watch report<\/a> claiming child labour is \u201crampant\u201d. Many reports of illegal working come from the garment sector, the country\u2019s second largest industry.<\/p>\n

Turkey\u2019s giant textile industry is a major supplier to Europe but remains largely unregulated, an estimated 60% of the total workforce<\/a> is unregistered, meaning they work informally, usually without a contract or any employment benefits. Syrian refugees make up a particularly vulnerable section of the workforce. Visiting Syrian workers in textile workshops in three Turkish cities \u2013 Istanbul, Mersin and Adana \u2013 I encountered child labour, poor working conditions and low pay.<\/p>\n

Turkey\u2019s policy until this month had been to treat Syrians as temporary guests, with no right to work, meaning refugees could only work illegally. The landscape is shifting, however. As part of a deal with the EU, the Turkish government last week announced new regulations<\/a> that will allow any Syrian who has been in the country for six months to apply for a work permit.<\/p>\n

The move has been tentatively welcome by NGOs. Danielle McMullan, senior researcher at the UK-based non-profit Business & Human Rights Resource Centre<\/a>, said permits \u201cwill go some way to provide legal protections for working Syrian refugees\u201d. But she warned: \u201cBusinesses shouldn\u2019t become complacent, they will need to know where Syrian refugees are in their supply chain and be diligent to the exploitation that has and will continue to take place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Discrimination<\/strong><\/p>\n

A key aim of the new work permits is to ensure Syrian refugees in Turkey receive the minimum wage, currently set at 1,647 lira a month (\u00a3379). Their illegal status and lack of any bargaining power mean that, for many, wages are far below this level.<\/p>\n

In another Istanbul basement workshop, 28-year-old Abdo who fled the war-torn city Deir ez-Zor<\/a> after clashes between Islamic State and the Syrian regime, speaks about this discrimination. \u201cWe get treated differently here,\u201d he says, \u201cwe get paid less and have to work harder than our Turkish colleagues.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause you cannot work legally, there is no job security … Our pay is always late; right now our pay is six days overdue and I have bills to pay.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the south of Turkey, wages for refugees are often even lower. In the coastal city of Mersin, I meet 20-year-old Leila in an \u201cunder the stairs\u201d garment workshop. She fled here with her parents from Aleppo three years ago. \u201cMy parents are too old to work, so I have to provide for us,\u201d she says, \u201cbut my earnings are not enough for us to survive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leila earns 1.6 Turkish lira (37p) per hour. \u201cI make 350 lira per month, but we pay 450 lira in rent,\u201d she says. \u201cMy brother sends money from Sweden in order for us to survive.\u201d Leila would love to go back to school: \u201cI dream of becoming a teacher.\u201d<\/p>\n

Risk for European brands<\/strong><\/p>\n

The informality of the Turkish textile industry means little is known about how much illegal refugee labour is in the supply chain of European brands. The sector is dominated by medium-sized factories<\/a> and smaller workshops<\/a>, often with poor working conditions and no auditing, to which larger factories outsource production.<\/p>\n

Many European brands import from Turkey as it is close and known for the quality of the work. Turkey is the third largest supplier of clothing<\/a> to Europe, after China and Bangladesh. In 2014, Europe imported \u20ac13.7bn<\/a> (\u00a310.4bn) worth of textiles and clothing from Turkey.<\/p>\n

In Istanbul, the white jumpers that Shukri is packing in boxes will be sent to Italy. Shukri shows me the brand stitched in the neck: Piazza Italia. \u201cThe business that owns this workshop both sells to the Turkish market and exports to Germany and Italy,\u201d the supervisor says. Italian clothing company Piazza Italia did not respond to the Guardian\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n

In another Istanbul workshop where Syrian refugees are working for 950 lira (\u00a3223) per month for a minimum of 60 hours a week, the clothes are made for German brands Orsay and Margittes.<\/p>\n

While Margittes did not respond to the Guardian\u2019s request for comment on the working conditions found at its sub-contractor, Marie-Claude Koenig, business development and CSR officer at Orsay told the Guardian the company very much recognises its \u201cresponsibility to improve value-chain management and overall working conditions\u201d. She said Orsay had previously found \u201ccritical issues\u201d at a factory in its supply chain which led to a suspension of production.<\/p>\n

Recognising the high degree of sub-contracting in the Turkish supply chain, Koenig said the way to increase the rights of workers was through alliances such as the Ethical Trade Initiative of which Orsay is a member. \u201cThe challenges in the Turkish textile industry can\u2019t be addressed by an individual company,\u201d she said<\/p>\n

Fair Wear Foundation, an NGO with 90 members representing more than 120 garment brands, has focused on the Turkish garment industry. It advises its members to identify all production locations and ensure they are included in their supply-chain monitoring system. \u201cUnder no circumstances should the vulnerability of refugees be used to deny them their basic rights, such as no child labour, no discrimination and the payment of a living wage,\u201d said Ruth Vermeulen, senior international verification coordinator at the Fair Wear Foundation.<\/p>\n

Where refugee labour is found, Vermeulen advises brands not to terminate links with suppliers, instead \u201cthey should work together with the supplier towards formalising the workers\u2019 status, however possible\u201d. This can be assisting them to apply for identification, residency permits, or applying for a work permit through the employer. However, she admits that these steps are not easy in the current climate.<\/p>\n

Other organisations are pushing brands to be transparent about the refugees in their supply chains. The Business & Human Rights Resource Centre has asked 28 major clothing brands<\/a> to account for their supply chains and outline the steps they are taking to protect Syrian refugees from abuse and exploitation. It will publish responses in February.<\/p>\n

With the eyes of the EU fixed on Turkey\u2019s capability to contain refugees<\/a>, a European push for human rights and labour conditions in the country may be further away than it has been for some time. As European imports of garments from Turkey continue to increase, clothing companies could be the drivers of change. \u201cAllowing Syrians to work legally should give brands the opportunity to be more open and collaborative on this serious issue,\u201d said McMullan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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