A serious problem in Turkey, as well as in many other nations, is child labor and under table labor (especially among women) as these workers are considered to be working illegally, and those who employ them are also breaking the law they are significantly less likely to be reported in statistics and/or receive due compensation and/or benefits, such as the insurance that is so instrumental in developing a clear sense of employment injuries and deaths. As reported by the U.S. Department of labor, from ILO estimates 6.7% of children aged 10-14 were working in Turkey in 2002. Currently, the government has identified the worst forms of child labor in Turkey as children working in the streets, in hazardous industrial sectors, seasonal agricultural work, domestic service, and rural labor. The majority of children work in agriculture. Children can also be found working in metal work, woodworking, clothing industries, textiles, leather goods, personal and domestic services, automobile repair, furniture making, hotel and catering, and footwear. A rapid assessment on working street children in 2001 found that street children in the cities of Diyarbakir, Adana, and Istanbul pick through garbage at dumpsites, shine shoes, and sell various goods, among other activities. Girls are trafficked to Turkey for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and domestic service from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Moldova, Romania, and Russia, and through the country to Western European destinations. (U.S. Department of Employment Bureau of International Labor Affairs "Turkey" Website NP).

Turkey took national action in 2003 when it established a national minimum age of work at 15, while children aged 14 can perform what is considered light work. Enforcement is therefore required to maintain such laws. Registration of the ability to work those aged 14-18 is required and individual children must undergo training and are required to have physical examinations (U.S. Department of Employment Bureau of International Labor Affairs "Turkey" Website NP). This is likely help significantly in Turkey's...

Turkey should continue to enforce and enact new laws that enforce rather than undermine the goal of reducing work related injuries. Additionally Turkey should continue to identify and prosecute employers who break these laws and continue to allow workers to bargain to amend difficult and dangerous work conditions wherever possible. On the issue of mining and quarrying as the most dangerous of Turkey's main employment trades, this subset of employment should be offered increased technological resources to provide communications and trained rescue teams located regionally to answer concerns of miners and all those who do this dangerous underground work. (Kucuker 144) Other industries also require increased regulation and enforcement of existing laws.
Works Cited

About the ILO" Retrieved November 19, 2007 at http://www.ilo.org/global/About_the_ILO/lang -- en/index.htm

International Labor Organization LABORSTA interactive data retrieval system Retrieved November 19, 2007 at http://laborsta.ilo.org/

ILO NATALEX, Country Profiles Turkey Retrieved November 19, 2007 at http://www.ilo.org/dyn/natlex/natlex_browse.details-p_lang=en&p_country=TUR&p_classification=00&p_origin=COUNTRY&p_sortby=SORTBY_COUNTRY

Kucuker, H. Occupational fatalities among coal mine workers in Zonguldak,

Turkey, 1994-2003. Occup Med (Lond). 2006 Mar;56(2):144-6.

US Department of Employment Bureau of International Labor Affairs "Turkey" Website Retrieved November 19, 2007 at http://www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/tda2004/turkey.htm