Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery Poverty drives the unsuspecting poor into the
hands of traffickers Published reports & articles from 2000 to 2025 gvnet.com/humantrafficking/Turkey.htm
Turkey is a
destination and, to a lesser extent, transit country for women and children
predominately from Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union trafficked
primarily for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation and, to a lesser
degree, for the purpose of forced labor.
According to Armenian NGOs and the Government of Armenia, the
trafficking of Armenian women to Turkey for the purpose of sexual
exploitation continued to be a problem, although the Government of Turkey did
not identify any such victims in 2008. - U.S. State Dept
Trafficking in Persons Report, June, 2009 [Check
out a later country report here and possibly a full TIP Report here |
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CAUTION: The following links
have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in Turkey. Some of these links may lead to websites
that present allegations that are unsubstantiated or even false. No
attempt has been made to validate their authenticity or to verify their content. HOW TO USE THIS WEB-PAGE Students If you are looking
for material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on
this page and others to see which aspects of Human Trafficking are of
particular interest to you. Would you
like to write about Forced-Labor? Debt
Bondage? Prostitution? Forced Begging? Child Soldiers? Sale of Organs? etc. On the other
hand, you might choose to include precursors of trafficking such as poverty and hunger. There is a lot to
the subject of Trafficking. Scan other
countries as well. Draw comparisons
between activity in adjacent countries and/or regions. Meanwhile, check out some of the Term-Paper resources
that are available on-line. Teachers Check out some of
the Resources
for Teachers attached to this website. ***
FEATURED ARTICLES *** Human trafficking
‘world-wide epidemic’ Jennifer Daddario Staff Reporter, Cleveland Jewish News, 26 April 2007 www.clevelandjewishnews.com/articles/2007/04/26/news/local/human0427.txt [accessed 1 January
2011] [accessed 1 January
2011] [scroll down] One of the stories
Bartell related was about Svetlana, a young Russian woman. She was promised a
well-paying job in Istanbul, Turkey, by two men. Once she arrived, her
passport and money were taken away, and she was locked up and forced into
prostitution. Desperate to escape, she jumped out of a window when she was
with a customer and fell six stories.
Instead of taking her to the hospital, the customer called the
traffickers. Untreated, she ultimately died. Turkey's sex trade
entraps Slavic women Craig S. Smith, The
New York Times, Trabzon, Turkey, 28 June 2005 www.nytimes.com/2005/06/27/world/europe/27iht-turkey.html?_r=2 [accessed 12
September 2011] [accessed 19
February 2018] The women arrive
here by ferry from across the Black Sea, sometimes dozens at a time. Whatever
their real names, they are known in Turkey as Natashas,
and often end up working as prostitutes in this country's growing sex trade. Most come of their
own free will, but many end up as virtual slaves, sold from pimp to pimp through
a loosely organized criminal network that stretches from Moscow to Istanbul
and beyond. Woman jailed for
forcing child into sex trade Independent Online
(IOL) News, Dushanbe, 5 November 2004 www.iol.co.za/news/world/woman-jailed-for-forcing-child-into-sex-trade-1.226224 [accessed 1 January
2011] Last week a
non-governmental organisation said there was a
growing trend in the abduction and sale of Tajik boys for sexual exploitation
abroad. The Modar organisation
said groups in the United Arab Emirates, Turkey,
Pakistan and other countries were prepared to pay as much as $70 000 for
a Tajik boy between the ages of 10 and 12. ***
ARCHIVES *** 2020 Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices: Turkey U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, 30 March 2021 www.state.gov/reports/2020-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/turkey/
[accessed 28 June
2021] PROHIBITION OF
FORCED OR COMPULSORY LABOR Women, refugees,
and migrants were vulnerable to labor trafficking. Although government
efforts to prevent trafficking continued with mixed effect, authorities made
improvements in identifying trafficking victims nationwide. The government
did not release data on the number of arrests and convictions related to
trafficking. The government
implemented a work permit system for registered Syrian adults with special
temporary protected status; however, applying for a work permit was the
responsibility of the employer, and the procedure was sufficiently burdensome
and expensive that relatively few employers pursued legally hiring refugees.
As a consequence the vast majority of both conditional refugees and Syrians
under special temporary protection remained without legal employment options,
leaving them vulnerable to exploitation, including illegally low wages,
withholding of wages, and exposure to unsafe work conditions. PROHIBITION OF CHILD
LABOR AND MINIMUM AGE FOR EMPLOYMENT Illicit child labor
persisted, including in its worst forms, fostered in part by large numbers of
Syrian refugees and the pandemic driving more family members to seek
employment. Child labor primarily took place in seasonal agriculture (e.g.,
hazelnuts), street work (e.g., begging), and small or medium industry (e.g.,
textiles, footwear, and garments), although the overall scale of the problem
remained unclear, according to a wide range of experts, academics, and UN
agencies engaged on the issue. Parents and others sent Romani children to work
on the streets selling tissues or food, shining shoes, or begging. Such
practices were also a significant problem among Syrian and Afghan refugee
children. The government implemented a work permit system for registered
adult Syrian refugees with temporary protection status, but many lacked
access to legal employment; some refugee children consequently worked to help
support their families, in some cases under exploitative conditions.
According to data from the Ministry of Family, Labor, and Social Services, in
2019, a total of 27 workplaces were fined for violating rules prohibiting
child labor. Freedom House
Country Report 2020 Edition freedomhouse.org/country/turkey/freedom-world/2020 [accessed 7 May 2020] G4. DO INDIVIDUALS
ENJOY EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY AND FREEDOM FROM ECONOMIC EXPLOITATION? The weakness of labor unions and the government’s increasing willingness
to take action against organized labor have undermined equality of
opportunity, protection from economic exploitation, and workplace safety.
Workplace accidents have become more frequent in recent years, and laborers
have little recourse if injured. According to the Workers’ Health and Work
Safety Assembly (İSİGM), more than 1,700 workers died in workplace
accidents in 2019, including 67 child laborers and 112 migrant laborers. The
large refugee population is especially vulnerable to exploitative employment
conditions. 2017 Findings on
the Worst Forms of Child Labor Office of Child
Labor, Forced Labor, and Human Trafficking, Bureau of International Labor
Affairs, US Dept of Labor, 2018 www.dol.gov/sites/default/files/documents/ilab/ChildLaborReport_Book.pdf [accessed 22 April
2019] www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/ILAB/child_labor_reports/tda2017/ChildLaborReportBook.pdf [accessed 7 May 2020]
Note:: Also check out this country’s report in the more recent edition DOL
Worst Forms of Child Labor [page 981] Due to the seasonal
nature of agricultural work throughout the country, children living in rural
areas often migrate with their families and engage in agricultural work for
up to seven months of the year. Significant numbers of these children have
limited access to health care and education as a result of migration. (34;
35; 36; 4; 5; 24; 37; 2) Syrian refugee families working in agriculture
tended to receive lower pay and live in worse conditions than Turkish
workers, increasing the vulnerability of both Syrian adults and children to
potential exploitation. (4; 12; 5; 2). Yazidi Slavery,
Child Trafficking, Death Threats to Journalist: Should Turkey Remain in NATO? Uzay Bulut,
Gatestone Institute, 8 August 2018 www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12816/turkey-child-trafficking-slavery [accessed 8 August
2018] In her article, Gönültaş conducted an interview with Azad Barış, founding president of the Yazidi Cultural
Foundation, who said that a Yazidi girl, who was taken captive during the
ISIS invasion of Sinjar in 2014, was sold for a fee determined by ISIS
through "intermediaries" in Ankara: "To restore
the child to liberty, the Yazidi community and humanitarian aid organizations
-- the 'reliable intermediaries' who stepped in to save the child --
contacted the intermediaries who acted on behalf of ISIS.... The child was
then taken out of Turkey quickly with the help of international organizations
and reunited with her family. As far as I know, Turkish security forces were
not informed of the incident. The priority was the life of the child and to
take her to safety swiftly. And the child did get safely reunited with her
family." Barış also said that
Yazidi women were exposed to mass rapes at the hands of ISIS terrorists who
called them "spoils of war" and claimed that it was
"religiously permissible" ("jaiz"
in Arabic) to rape them: "Women were
taken from one cell house to another and were exposed to the same sexual and
psychological torture in every house. According to witness statements, women
were mass raped by ISIS militants three times every day. Dozens of women
ended their lives by noosing and strangling themselves with their
headscarves. "Slave markets
have been formed on an internet platform known as the 'deep web.' Not only
women but also children are sold on auctions on the deep web... When the
selling is completed on the internet, the intermediaries of those buying the
women and the intermediaries of ISIS meet at a place considered 'safe' by
both parties. Women and children are delivered to their buyers. Some Yazidi
families have liberated their wives, children and relatives through the help
of the reliable persons that joined in the auctions on the deep web on their
behalf. The price for liberating the women and children ranges between 5,000
and 25,000 euros... Our missing people are still largely held by ISIS.
Wherever ISIS is, and wherever they are effective, the women and children are
mostly there. But selling women is not heard of very often anymore." Also according to Barış, the second largest Yazidi group held
captive by ISIS are boys under the age of nine: "[they] receive jihadist education at the hands of ISIS; are
brainwashed, and have been made to change their religion. Each of them is
raised as a jihadist. But we are not fully informed of the exact number and
whereabouts of our kidnapped children." This is not the
first time that the sale of Yazidis in Turkey was reported in the media. In
2015, the German public television station ARD produced footage documenting
the slave trade being conducted by ISIS through a liaison office in the
province of Gaziantep in southeast Turkey, near the Syrian border. Child Brides in
Turkey Burak Bekdil,
Gatestone Institute, 30 July 2018 www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12766/child-brides-turkey [accessed 30 July
2018] ·
40% of girls under the age of 18 in Turkey are forced into
marriage, according to Turkish Philanthropy Funds. ·
In January 2018, a government body under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's jurisdiction suggested that, according to
Islamic law, girls as young as 9 and boys as young as 12 could marry. ·
"Low education" means almost all of Turkey:
The average schooling in the country is a mere 6.5 years. Rise in sexual
abuse of minors in Turkey sets alarm bells ringing Ercan Yavuz,
Today’s Zaman, Ankara, 07 June 2008 www.todayszaman.com/newsDetail_openPrintPage.action?newsId=144149 [accessed 29 August
2014] [Long
URL] [accessed 29 August
2014] According to research
Polat conducted himself, the frequency of cases of
sexual abuse and exploitation is highest in the cities of İstanbul,
Diyarbakır and Bursa. Children trafficked from countries such as
Ukraine, Moldova and Russia, as well as southeastern Turkey, are forced into prostitution in İstanbul. He says
forced marriages of young girls to older men in return for money remains a
persistent and traditional sexual crime against children in Diyarbakır. Fight against human
trafficking continues, data reveal Today’s Zaman,
İstanbul, 22 January 2008 www.todayszaman.com/news-132198-fight-against-human-trafficking-continues-data-reveal.html [accessed 29 August
2014] Turkey, a transit
country for citizens of countries in the former Soviet bloc as well as the
Middle East, who aspire for a better life in wealthy European countries, has
also been emerging as a destination country in recent years due to its
improving living standards and stable economy. Most of the human trafficking
victims come from countries like Ukraine or Moldova to Turkey in hopes of
finding a job but end up being trafficked for sexual exploitation. A significant
instrument in the rescue of human trafficking victims is a hotline launched
in 2005. According to the report, some 56 people were rescued by security
forces after victims themselves or others dialed 157 for help. As in previous
years, the clients of women forced to prostitute themselves proved to be the
most helpful: Clients or friends/relatives of the women made 81 percent of
the calls to 157, while only 19 percent of the calls were made by the victims
themselves. Trafficking in
women remains a global abuse Hans M. Wuerth, Special to The Morning Call - Freelance | October
2, 2007 articles.mcall.com/2007-10-02/news/3781642_1_human-trafficking-world-s-human-rights-abuses [accessed 1 January
2011] The June 28, 2007,
German weekly, Die Zeit, published an article on
the growing problem of human trafficking in Europe. The article gave several
specific examples. One woman, Natalia, from the country of Moldova, wrongly
assumed that a household job awaited her in Istanbul that would pay 300 Euros per month. At the Istanbul
airport, however, her male contact person was approached by another man who
told Natalia that she would be working for him instead. Subsequently, she was
forced into prostitution and ''sold'' six more times. Fortunately, her sister
managed to locate her and to get her released. Trafficking victims
prompt new Baptist ministry in Moldova Sue Sprenkle, Baptist Press, CHISINAU, Moldova, 2 Oct 2007 www.sbcbaptistpress.org/BPnews.asp?ID=26535 [accessed 1 January
2011] www.bpnews.net/26535/trafficking-victims-prompt-new-baptist-ministry-in-moldova [accessed 5 October
2016] Hoping to make
money to help her husband support their family, a young Moldovan woman named
Irina took a job in Turkey offered
through a friend. Upon arriving there, she was placed in a room of an
abandoned casino with three other girls. Periodically, a guard entered the
room and took one of the captives to a client. The girls were not paid any
money and often were severely beaten by the guard and clients. One day, Irina and
one of the other girls managed to pry open the window of the second-story
room and jump to the alley below. A kind stranger bought a ticket back to
Moldova for her. Once home, however, she felt dirty and out of place. Combating human
trafficking under one roof Today’s Zaman,
Ankara, 13 July 2007 www.todayszaman.com/news-116580-combating-human-trafficking-under-one-roof.html [accessed 29 August
2014] Güneş designated the
Public Security Department a coordination unit to organize operations against
human trafficking under one roof. He said that in 2006 in Turkey, 104 cases
of human trafficking had been discovered and 404 suspects were apprehended
along with 117 victims. According to the minister, 31 cases have been
reported since the beginning of 2007 in which 102 suspects were taken into
custody and 43 victims rescued. Turkish speaker at
Humphrey Institute presents her research on human trafficking Dennis Geisinger, Pulse of the Twin Cities, 13 June 2007 www.pulsetc.com/article00c2.html?op=Print&sid=3313 [accessed 1 January
2011] archive.southsidepride.com/2007/06/articles/Turkishspeakerhumantraffickin.htm [accessed 19 June 2017] “At least 97
percent of the traffic is for the purposes of sexual exploitation,” said Altuntas. “One out of three women trafficked to Turkey
are mothers who are lured by chances of making a better life for their
children,” she said. A Turkish ad campaign
designed to help these victims features the face of a young child asking the
question, “Have you seen my mother?” Turkey has also
begun a 24-hour hotline for trafficking victims, distributing information
cards that list the hotline number with the plea, “If anyone takes away your
passport, your freedom or forces you to perform work of any kind without pay,
call the helpline.” The cards are printed in four languages and are being
handed out at border crossings and transportation hubs. Operation into Turkish
human trafficking gang expanded NTV-MSNBC, ANKARA, 7
March 2007 arsiv.ntvmsnbc.com/news/402074.asp [accessed 1 January
2011] Turkish police on
Wednesday expanded their operation targeting a gang involved in human
trafficking to cover six separate provinces. Among those detained was a
retired police chief who also worked as the security co-ordinator
for the Turkish retailing company Yimpas. Police
took almost one hundred people into custody who had obtained visas with false
identifications for European Union countries. 687 people tried
for human trafficking last year Turkish Daily News,
Ankara, 10 August 2006 At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 12
September 2011] Criminal courts in
Turkey over the last year settled almost 200 cases involving the
crime of human trafficking, with 687 people appearing before the courts. Turkey is a major
destination and transit country for women and children trafficked primarily
for sexual exploitation and, to a lesser extent, forced labor. In 2005, the
International Organization for Migration (IOM) office in Turkey reported that
60 percent of cases identified involved victims from Ukraine and Moldova;
other victims are trafficked from throughout Eastern Europe and the former
Soviet Union. Reports of trafficking within Turkey were continuing, it said.
Turkish traffickers used violence to control their victims, often using
threats against victims' families as a powerful form of coercion. Human Trafficking
Victims on Rise Ayse Durukan,
BIA News Center, Istanbul, 09/05/2006 eski.bianet.org/2006/05/01_eng/news78779.htm [accessed 1 January
2011] bianet.org/english/politics/78779-human-trafficking-victims-on-rise [accessed 19
February 2018] A joint study
conducted by the International Organization for Migration (IMO) and Turkey’s
Security General Directorate has revealed a significant increase in human
trafficking victims being brought to Turkey, a majority of them by force. IOM, has stated that
the women are trafficked against their own will, by force, kidnapped without
compensation in any form and then sold. It said the organisation
has provided support for 55 human trafficking case victims in the first three
months of 2006 alone. Sex Trafficking
Plagues Turkey Amberin Zaman, Special to
The Times, Los Angeles Times, Ankara Turkey, 01 February 2006 articles.latimes.com/2006/feb/01/world/fg-turkey1 [accessed 1 January
2011] This nation has
become one of the largest markets in the trafficking of women from nearby
former Soviet states who have been forced into prostitution, with profits
from the illicit sex trade in Turkey an estimated $3.6 billion last year and
growing, an international agency said in a report released Tuesday. Ukrainian women
freed from sexual slavery in Turkey thanks to phone tip-off United Press
International UPI International Edition, Geneva, August 5, 2005 tvol.blogspot.com/2005/08/ukrainian-women-freed-from-sexual.html [accessed 24 June
2013 The women - one of
whom was held for six years - were set to return to Ukraine after being
rescued by Turkish police following a call to the "157" hotline,
which is run by the IOM, the Geneva-based organization said. Impoverished women from Eastern Europe are
lured to Turkey by criminal gangs with promises of well-paid jobs, but many
are later forced into prostitution or other jobs in the underground labor
market. Turkey Eyes 'Model'
Success In Human Trafficking Fight Turkish Daily News,
13 February 2005 -- Source:
www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?webcat=diplomacy&enewsid=5790 [accessed 1 January
2011] Her captors were not moved by her plea that she could not
have sex because of her pregnancy. A week after she gave birth to her baby,
one of the captors pushed chewing gum into the baby's mouth and killed it
because the mother was spending too much time taking care of the kid, rather
than the clients. [accessed 19 June 2017] Sofia, Istanbul
Bust Human Organ Trafficking Ring Novinite - Sofia News
Agency, 9 March 2005 www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=45415 [accessed 2 January
2011] Bulgarian and Turkish police have disclosed a
major channel for human organ trafficking, which was spreading on the
territory of both countries. The
alleged female mastermind and her two accomplices were arrested and face
charges they have talked various people into selling off their kidneys to a
private clinic in Turkey for USD 2,500-5,000 a piece.
The price varied depending on the blood group, Bulgarian police sources
explained. The Model Of
Democracy in the Islamic world is what Bush called Turkey Herald Sun
(Australia), 01 July 2004 greenethoughts.blogspot.com/2004/07/model-of-democracy.html [accessed 2 January
2011] A 13-year-old Turkish girl was married off by her family
to her rapist who paid them "the price of a truck" to escape a long
jail sentence, newspapers in Istanbul reported today. The girl, from the village of Damlibogaz, in western Turkey, was 10 years old when a
family friend, aged 20, started sleeping with her. The rapes continued for a year before she
fell pregnant and gave birth to a girl. Turkey: Victims of
family violence Amnesty
International, Index Number: EUR 44/022/2004,
Date Published: 31 May 2004 www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/EUR44/022/2004 [accessed 2 January
2011] www.amnesty.org/en/documents/eur44/022/2004/en/ [accessed 19
February 2018] GULDUNYA TOREN - Guldunya Toren named her new
baby "Hope". She knew that the two of them might not have long to
live. After she became pregnant, she had refused to marry her cousin and was
sent to her uncle’s house in Istanbul. There, one of her brothers gave her a
rope and told her to hang herself. She escaped and begged for police
protection, but was assured that her uncle and brother promised not to kill
her. In February 2004, weeks after the birth, her brothers reportedly shot
and wounded her in the street. From her hospital bed, she pleaded for the
police to save her. She was left to face her murderers alone. Late at night,
her killers entered the unguarded hospital and shot her in the head. Turkey: Panlýurfa declaration on violence against women Human Rights
Association of Panlýurfa www.wluml.org/node/1286 [accessed 2 January
2011] Honor killings are forms of extra judicial executions.
Turkey co-sponsored a resolution titled ‘Working Towards Elimination of Crimes
Committed in the Name of Honor’ at the 57th Session of the United Nations
General Assembly Third Committee. State should start implementing the
resolution immediately in good faith. We call upon the State, and
specifically Committee on the Preparation of the New Penal Code to make the
amendments that crimes committed in the name of honor are violations of
women’s human rights and a form of extra judicial execution, cannot be
mitigated as a ‘unjust provocation’. In addition, we ask the State to continue
to co-sponsor this resolution at the 59th Session of the United Nations
General Assembly in the fall of 2004. The inadequate number of women’s shelters in Turkey,
currently 14, further perpetuates the problem of violence against women. For
instance, although crimes committed in the name of honor widely exist in the
southeastern and eastern regions of the country, there is NOT even one
shelter in these regions. Thus, we call upon State to establish shelters
throughout the whole country, and provide free legal, medical, and
psychological aiding services to the all kinds of victims of violence against
women as well as appropriate assistance to enable women to find a means of
subsistence. The sustainability of these shelters can only be maintained with
long term planning and financial support of local, regional, and central
government participation. International
Migration: Promoting Management and Integration [PDF] UN Economic
Commission for Europe UNECE -- Statement by Professor N. Gaye Erbatur, Member of
Parliamentary Group on Population and Development, Turkey -- European Population Forum 2004:
Population Challenges and Policy Responses, 12 – 14 January 2004, Geneva www.unece.org/fileadmin/DAM/pau/_docs/pau/2004/PAU_2004_EPF_Sess4ReactErbatur.pdf [accessed 29 August
2014] In recent years, Turkey has become a country of
destination for human trafficking, and it is also a transit country. Unlike
other European countries, flexible visa and travel regulations in Turkey
enable foreigners to enter the counrty easily on
individual basis, without particular assistance from organized groups or
agencies. Countries that are surrounding Turkey from the North to the
North-East are generally accepted as countries of origin. Nationals of these
countries may enter Turkey by a visa obtained at the ports of entry and they
can stay in Turkey up to one month. Their purpose is two-fold. The first and
the foremost is the “luggage trade”. The second purpose is to find employment
regardles of the work conditions. While their presence in Turkey is mainly voluntary, the
work they hold illegally and their vulnerable status, nevertheless, make them
susceptible to exploitation. Some of them acquire Turkish citizenship through
arranged marriages and obtain legal residency in Turkey. Some others end up
in small workshops, or in private households, working illegally without any
job security, insurance or administrative and judicial safeguards. Those who
are employed in tourism and entertainment sector may become vulnerable to
further exploitation and trafficking. Human trafficking
ring smashed in Britain, Germany Agence France-Presse AFP, London, 04 November 2004 At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 12 September
2011] Eight people have been arrested in London and five in
Germany, all of Turkish origin, in connection with an alleged network
trafficking people from Turkey to Britain. The immigrants were brought in by air, road and sea
through Germany, France and Belgium , to work
as slave labour in takeaways, burger bars and cafes
in and around London, it said. Dying to Leave Thirteen, New York
Public Media, September 25th, 2003 www.pbs.org/wnet/wideangle/episodes/dying-to-leave/human-trafficking-worldwide/turkey/1469/ [accessed 26
December 2010] www.pbs.org/wnet/wideangle/uncategorized/human-trafficking-worldwide-turkey/1469/ [accessed 18
February 2018] VICTIMS - Some 250,000
people have been trafficked through Turkey since 1999, according to the
International Organization for Migration. Most of Turkey’s human trafficking
victims are women and girls from various states of the former Soviet Union,
including Azerbaijan, Georgia, Armenia, Russia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, and
Moldova. Women may also be trafficked from Romania, Africa, the Middle East,
and the former Yugoslavia. There are reports of girls being kidnapped and
trafficked from orphanages in Romania, but most leave their homelands
voluntarily, under the belief that they are headed for work as waitresses,
models, dancers, or housekeepers. Girls may be trafficked as far away as
Southeast Asia for work in the sex trade. Those who resist their captors may
be beaten, raped, or murdered. Many are forced to sign work contracts that
result in debt bondage. According to a recent report by Johns Hopkins
University’s Protection Project, there may be as many as 200 human smuggling
organizations operating in Turkey. Irregular Migration
and Trafficking in Women : The Case of Turkey [PDF] Prof. Dr. Sema Erder and Dr. Selmin Kaska, International
Organization for Migration (IOM), November 2003, ISBN 92-9068-178-0 www.iom.int/jahia/webdav/site/myjahiasite/shared/shared/mainsite/published_docs/covers/Irregular_mig_in_turkey.pdf [accessed 2 January
2011] www.worldcat.org/title/irregular-migration-and-trafficking-in-women-the-case-of-turkey/oclc/54379794 [accessed 10
February 2016] DESCRIPTION -
This report provides a comprehensive view of the mechanisms and institutions
involved in the trafficking of women in Turkey. The aim is to gain a better
understanding of the issue and to propose necessary remedies and policy
measures to address this phenomenon. The study examines the environment and
social contexts, private and public perceptions of and attitudes towards
trafficking in women, the role and attitude of intermediaries, of public
officials, and the attempts to address the issue through legislative means by
providing appropriate grounds for the indictment of the perpetrators and
legal redress for the victims. TABLE OF CONTENTS - Executive Summary * Part I : Irregular Migration and Trafficking in Women in Turkey
* The International and Regional Context * Irregular Migration to Turkey :
What do Statistics Reveal ? * Legal Framework * The Role of the Media in
Influencing Public Opinion * Part II: Survey Findings * Methodology * The
Official Perspective * The Views of Embassy and Consular Officials * The View
from Istanbul * Modes of Trafficking and Deception Activities and Testimonies
* Concluding Remarks. Child Labour Persists Around The World: More Than 13 Percent Of
Children 10-14 Are Employed International Labour Organisation (ILO) News,
Geneva, 10 June 1996 www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/press-and-media-centre/news/WCMS_008058/lang--en/index.htm [accessed 9
September 2011] www.scribd.com/document/366840945/Child-Labour-Persists-Around-the-World [accessed 19
February 2018] "Today's child
worker will be tomorrow's uneducated and untrained adult, forever trapped in
grinding poverty. No effort should be spared to break that vicious
circle", says ILO Director-General Michel Hansenne. Among the countries
with a high percentage of their children from 10-14 years in the work force
are: Mali, 54.5 percent; Burkina Faso, 51; Niger and Uganda, both 45; Kenya,
41.3; Senegal, 31.4; Bangladesh, 30.1; Nigeria, 25.8; Haiti, 25; Turkey, 24; Côte d'Ivoire, 20.5;
Pakistan, 17.7; Brazil, 16.1; India, 14.4; China, 11.6; and Egypt, 11.2. ***
EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE *** Freedom House
Country Report 2018 Edition freedomhouse.org/country/turkey/freedom-world/2018 [accessed 7 May 2020] G4. DO INDIVIDUALS
ENJOY EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY AND FREEDOM FROM ECONOMIC EXPLOITATION? The weakness of
labor unions and the growing political pressures on Turkish society have
undermined equality of opportunity and protection from economic exploitation.
Workplace accidents are frequent, and laborers have little recourse if
injured. Refugee communities have provided a ready source of cheap,
exploitable labor, including child labor, resulting in significant abuses. Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, March 8, 2006 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61680.htm [accessed 11
February 2020] TRAFFICKING
IN PERSONS
– Foreign victims trafficked to the country were typically recruited by small
networks of foreign nationals and Turkish citizens who relied on referrals
and recruitment from friends and family members in the source country. Some
victims answered newspaper advertisements or enlisted the help of job
agencies in the source country. The victims often did not know where they
were going or which airlines they were using. Some victims reportedly arrived
in the country knowing that they would work illegally in the sex industry;
however, most arrived believing they would work as models, waitresses,
dancers, domestic servants, or in other regular employment. Traffickers
typically confiscated victims' documents, then confined, raped, beat,
starved, and intimidated them by threatening their families and ultimately
forced them into prostitution. Not all trafficking
cases were for sexual purposes. One foreign victim was saved from domestic
servitude after calling the trafficking hot line. The media reported that
young Turkish men and women, many underage, were recruited to work in brick
factories in Tekirdag Province, receiving little or
no salaries and living in hazardous conditions on site. The Department of Labor’s 2004 Findings on
the Worst Forms of Child Labor U.S. Dept of Labor Bureau of International Labor Affairs, 2005 www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/tda2004/turkey.htm [accessed 1 January
2011] Note:: Also check out this country’s report in the more recent edition DOL
Worst Forms of Child Labor INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - 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. |
