A total of 878 people died in workplace accidents in Turkey in the first half of this year, according to a report by the Health and Safety Labor Watch (İSİG).
Thirty-three minors were included among those who died in work-related accidents in the last six months, the report states, while 36 were refugees or migrants including 19 from Syria, six from Afghanistan, three from Iran and two from Uzbekistan.
The city with the most frequent workplace fatalities was İstanbul with 151 deaths.
People have been suffering from lax work safety standards for decades in Turkey, where workplace accidents are nearly a daily occurrence. In the worst work-related accident in the country’s history, 301 miners died in an explosion in Manisa’s Soma district in May 2014.
A total of 33,000 people have died in workplace accidents in Turkey since the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in 2002, according to Deniz Yücel, a spokesperson for the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP).
Turkey has recorded at least 2,500 deaths in work-related accidents for young workers since 2013, according to a report by İSİG.
İSİG General Coordinator Murat Çakır had earlier said the reason for the record number of fatalities in work-related accidents has to do with the policies of the AKP, which he said aim to turn Turkey into a source of cheap labor for Europe.
A yearly report by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) on labor rights reveals that Turkey is one of the 10 worst countries in the world for working people.
