Every corner of the country has turned into a workplace casualty basin for those enrolled in the Vocational Education Centres (MESEM) who are forced to work at a mere childhood age. Most recently, a 16-year-old trainee student from MESEM, Yiğit Mehmet Kesme, lost his life after becoming trapped in the hydraulic components while repairing a tractor in the Düziçi district of Osmaniye. Yiğit Mehmet became the 34th child to die while working this year.

Only the previous day, footage of a 13-year-old apprentice being assaulted with a wet towel by his journeyman in an auto repair shop in Aksaray sparked outrage on social media. While it was learned that the apprentice's family filed a complaint against the journeyman, no official statement has been made regarding the matter.

Children are forced to work long hours under low wages, faced with job pressure, assault, and ill-treatment. The current briefing note prepared by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) under the International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour and Forced Labour (IPEC+) defines this form of employment in the severest terms. According to the ILO, forced labour at a childhood age, especially in heavy work such as auto repair and industry, harbours the harshest conditions of labour.

THE WORST FORM

One of the most crucial principles of the IPEC+ reports is that employing children in hazardous industries by usurping their right to education constitutes the "worst form" of child labour. Children spending the vast majority of the week in heavy industry, auto repair, or construction sites under the guise of apprenticeship or vocational training is defined directly as a mechanism of exploitation if there is no occupational safety and inspection. There is no guarantee or inspection for children in the country, the majority of whom are unregistered, and more than 560,000 of whom have been turned into labourers by the state via MESEMs.

MESEMs sit precisely at the heart of the system that the ILO virtually defines as a crime against humanity. Children are sent to school 1 day a week, and under the best-case scenario, are forced to work in heavy sectors below the minimum wage for 4 days. Despite this, Türkiye is not included in the ILO's IPEC+ programme.

According to data compiled by volunteers from the Health and Safety Labour Watch (İSİG), at least 34 children have been torn away from life in workplace casualties since the first day of 2026. Between 2013 and 2026, at least 852 children died in workplace casualties in the country. Since 2023, the number of children who lost their lives in workplace casualties while employed within the scope of MESEM is at least 21. In 2025, exactly 980,528 children between the ages of 15 and 17 were in registered employment. There is neither information nor any effort by public institutions to measure the number of unregistered child labourers. According to UNICEF, 45.5 per cent of working children in the country, including those working on the streets, work in services, 30.8 per cent in agriculture, and 23.7 per cent in the manufacturing industry, particularly in small and medium-sized enterprises.

SIGNATURES DO NOT PROTECT CHILDREN

While there are 138 million child labourers across the globe, 54 million of them are forced to work in hazardous jobs. Globally, 70 per cent of child labour is concentrated in agriculture, and these children are also the ones most deprived of fundamental rights. Children working in the harvesting of products such as cotton, hazelnuts, citrus fruits, and the like, from Çukurova to the Black Sea region in the country, either cannot attend school at all or have to interrupt their education due to seasonal agricultural migration. Children also cannot escape transport accidents and drownings that affect agricultural workers. The lack of hygienic accommodation, inability to access clean water, and insecurity in tent camps are virtually standard in the agricultural provinces of the country. Even though Türkiye has signed the ILO conventions, the lack of inspection leaves these children defenceless.

THE KIZILIRMAK RIVER TOOK TWO SISTERS

Two seasonal worker sisters who lost their lives on 2 July after being swept away by the Kızılırmak River became the subject of public order news, just like dozens who die every year. 13-year-old Zerda and 15-year-old Gülseren Şahin had come to Gemerek, Sivas, to work in the field with their families. The two sisters were swept away by the rising Kızılırmak while washing clothes in the river. 13-year-old Zerda had been working there in the tent camp since she was 4 years old. Hairdresser Gülden Temur, who styled her hair a week before her death, described her as follows: "She promised me. She said, 'I will continue my school, I won't live the life our people lived.' She dreamed of studying and building a good life."

INDEBTEDNESS DRIVES INTO SLAVERY

In Türkiye, which has signed the ILO’s Forced Labour Convention No. 29, slavery has taken refuge in a grey area through under-the-counter workshops and unregistered work. Employers withholding wages for months by saying "your money stays inside" and pushing workers into a debt spiral is directly counted as an element of "modern slavery" in the ILO IPEC+ reports. The ILO report shows that especially migrant workers without legal status are employed through a systematic mechanism of holding them hostage. This system, where those seeking their rights are silenced with the threat of deportation, particularly for migrant workers, continues to pump cheap labour into capital by bypassing the law thanks to the lack of inspection.

Note: This article is translated from the original article titled İnsanlığın en dışına çocuk emeği itiliyor, published in BirGün newspaper on July 13, 2026.