Halil İbrahim Yolcu, a 50-year-old chrome mine worker, died after suffering critical injuries when a rock fell on his head at a mine in Adana’s Aladağ district, once again raising concerns about workplace safety in Turkey, the Cumhuriyet daily reported on Tuesday.
The accident occurred on October 8 at the chrome mine in the southeastern province of Adana. Emergency services were dispatched after Yolcu’s coworkers reported the accident. He was transported to Seyhan State Hospital, where he remained in intensive care for three days.
Despite all medical efforts, Yolcu died on October 11.
The incident has raised concerns over safety measures in Turkey’s mining sector, which has seen a series of fatal accidents due to what many argue is negligence by authorities.
The tragic incident is the latest in a string of mining accidents in Turkey, where inadequate enforcement of safety standards and poor oversight have been blamed for numerous deaths.
Although Turkish mining laws mandate strict safety protocols, critics argue that government negligence and lack of regulation enforcement allow dangerous working conditions to persist in many mines.
Yolcu’s family has joined calls for increased safety measures in mines to prevent further accidents.
Turkey’s mining sector has a notorious safety record, with one of the deadliest mining disasters in recent history occurring in 2014, when 301 workers died in a coal mine explosion in Soma. Another mine disaster took place in 2022, when a methane blast ripped through a mine in Amasra, operated by the state-owned Turkish Hard Coal Enterprises (TTK), killing 43 miners and injuring nine others on October 14, 2022.
In response to these recurring tragedies, labor unions and rights groups have consistently urged the government to tighten safety inspections and hold mining companies accountable for unsafe conditions.
Ayhan Yüksel, chairman of the Chamber of Mining Engineers, has previously criticized the government’s mining policies, calling them the number one reason for such disasters. Since the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in 2002, more than 2,000 miners have died in accidents across the country.
“The government has normalized mining disasters by suggesting that they are a natural part of the job,” Yüksel said, referencing comments made by then-prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan after the 2014 Soma disaster. Erdoğan made controversial comments suggesting that such accidents were an inevitable part of mining.
According to Yüksel, mining companies often fail to take the necessary precautions to prevent accidents because the government does not rigorously enforce regulations. Inspections are rarely conducted, and when accidents occur, companies are rarely held accountable.
Tayfun Görgün, a representative of a left-wing mining union, echoed these concerns, saying that without proper inspections and planning, mining accidents are inevitable. He emphasized that workers often face retaliation if they attempt to unionize, leaving many mines without the protection and oversight of organized labor.
