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Article

20 Sep 2017

Author:
Laura Pitel, Financial Times

Turkey: Syrian refugee child labour commonplace in garment factories, agriculture & on streets, despite easier access to work permits & formal employment for adults

A day on the factory floor with a young Syrian refugee

At 6am, seven-year-old Mohammed Nour Abdullah sets out for work. Please use the sharing tools found via the email icon at the top of articles. Inside is a workshop the size of a large classroom. All day long it buzzes with the whirr and thrum of machinery and the tinny sound of pop music played from a mobile phone... Mohammed Nour’s job is to turn the finished jeans the right way around, stuffing his thin arms down each leg and pulling it inside out. He does this for 12 hours a day, Monday to Saturday — a 72-hour week for which he earns TL50 ($15)...In Gaziantep, a major Turkish textiles hub, many Syrians are employed in small workshops that act as subcontractors for larger factories. They produce shoes and clothes that are sold across Turkey, the Middle East and Europe, part of a textile industry worth $40bn a year...

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