Sixteen student members of the Workers Party of Turkey (TİP) have been arrested in İstanbul after protesting the death of minors in workplace accidents at sites where they are sent under a controversial vocational training program known as MESEM, Turkish Minute reported, citing the Anka news agency.
Seventeen students were detained outside an education summit at a hotel in İstanbul on Monday that was attended by Education Minister Yusuf Tekin.
The students had gathered near the venue to draw attention to children who died while working under the MESEM program due to what they say is a lack of work safety measures as well as insufficient training and supervision. As part of the protest, the students symbolically covered themselves in paint to represent the children who had died.
All 17 were referred to court on Wednesday. By evening, Bakırköy’s 7th Criminal Court of Peace had ordered the arrest of 16 of them.
The court cited the “strong suspicion of an offense” and ruled that arrest was a “proportionate” measure. The students were accused of resisting police and damaging property.
MESEM, formerly known as the Apprenticeship Training Center, is a vocational education system that was made part of formal and compulsory education in December 2016. In this system, students receive training in a specific field by both attending school and spending time at a workplace.
The program lasts four years and accepts students who have completed at least middle school. Those who finish the program receive both a high school diploma and a mastership certificate.
However, MESEM has been criticized for enabling child labor and pushing children out of education into work environments that put their lives at risk without the necessary work safety measures being in place. Child rights advocates argue that the program should be abolished.
In their statements to the court, the students said they were exercising their constitutional right to peaceful protest and denied the accusations against them. They said 86 youngsters had died under the MESEM system so far and that they wanted to prevent further deaths.
“We did not hit anyone. We were shoved by plainclothes officers. Any damage that occurred must have happened during the scuffle,” one student said.
Lawyers said the group staged a peaceful demonstration and symbolically covered themselves in paint to represent children who had died.
They claimed that there was no intent to damage property and no evidence documenting such damage. “If any paint ended up on the carpet, it was because people were pushed to the ground,” one lawyer said, adding that the students posed no flight risk and had no ability to tamper with evidence.
TİP leader Erkan Baş, who came to the courthouse to follow the proceedings, clashed with police inside the building. He criticized both the treatment of party officials and the decision to arrest.
Speaking to Anka, Baş said he and others were prevented from entering the courtroom. “There is no law, no justice, no judiciary here,” he said.
“We were not even allowed to enter the room where the decision was made. Those acting as palace servants in judicial robes ordered the arrest of 16 of our friends.”
Baş said the students were being punished for opposing what he called an exploitative system. “We are proud of our friends who raised their voices against a program that steals the dreams of children, forces them into labor and sends them to the grave,” he said.
Speaking at the summit on Monday, Minister Tekin pushed back against criticism of the MESEM program, saying the government is just as concerned about children’s well-being and safety as its critics.
He said despite objections, the ministry would continue cooperating with industry representatives and professional groups that support its efforts, always prioritizing the country’s needs and the interests of the young people.
According to the Health and Safety Labor Watch/Turkey (İSİG), at least 85 child worker deaths took place between January and November 2025.
Under the MESEM program, about 1.5 million students are employed, nearly 300,000 of whom are under the age of 18. Over the past year, 336 students working as apprentices under MESEM were injured in workplace accidents. At least nine children died in work-related incidents.
In a recent incident in September, Yağız Yıldız, an 11th-grader who was was interning at the Karabük Iron and Steel Works (KARDEMİR) in northwestern Turkey under the MESEM program was crushed beneath an overturned scrap-winding machine.
Workplace accidents remain a chronic problem in Turkey, where lax enforcement of occupational health and safety standards continues to cost lives.
Young apprentices, including those in programs like MESEM, face even greater risks because they receive limited training and supervision.
Turkey made progress in aligning its occupational health and safety legislation with European Union standards, after it became an EU candidate country in 1999, and also ratified the relevant International Labour Organization conventions in 2005. However, implementation and enforcement of these standards have been far less effective.
According to İSİG data, nearly 35,000 workers have died in workplace accidents since the Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in November 2002.
