Workers Of The World - 15

Syrian Children In Turkey

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.

The suffering of Ismail and other Syrian children have doubled abroad. They are living in a new country where tuition fees are unaffordable, and working a hard and exhausting job with one day off, on Sunday, which Ismail takes advantage of to play ball with his Syrian and Turkish peers in his small neighborhood.

As for Ahmad Rawas, 13, his life and familial circumstances have forced him to work in a Turkish restaurant from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. as a waiter and a delivery boy. He goes back to his small house exhausted, but the 1,200 lira [$534] per month he gets are very necessary to provide for his mother and four siblings. On days he does not show up at work for being sick or extremely tired, 40 lira [$17] is deducted from his salary. Still, despite sickness and fatigue, he goes to work the next day, induced by both the responsibility and need.

Amer, 11, stands in the Aksaray district in central Istanbul to sell Syrian bread to Syrian and Arab pedestrians, under the summer sun and in the winter cold. Sometimes, he works long hours to sell the bread he has, as it will become spoiled on the next day. Amer spoke to Al-Hayat about his work and said that it is much better than begging and smuggling Syrian cigarettes — a phenomenon luring many Syrian children, and which the Turkish government has recently begun fighting. He said that he has forgotten the meaning of education and school, which he has been missing for two years now. He bitterly remembered his old school, which was bombed in Maarrat al-Numan (in Idlib province).

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. Turkish actress and [UNICEF] Goodwill Ambassador Tuba Buyukustun (known in the Arab world as Lamis) called on the international community to focus on the right of Syrian children to education, as part of the campaign “No to the loss of a generation.”

taken from here