At least 226 workers died in work-related incidents in Turkey in September, bringing the death toll in the first nine months of 2026 to 1,736, according to a monthly report by the Health and Safety Labor Watch (İSİG), an independent workplace safety watchdog.
The dead included eight minors, 21 women and 14 migrant workers.
Five of the eight minors were 14 or younger. İSİG said child labor had long been concentrated in agriculture, small businesses and other sectors with limited oversight, but deaths in state-regulated vocational training programs (MESEM) highlighted the dangerous working conditions children faced even in programs presented as educational opportunities.
The 14 migrant workers who died were from Syria (five), Azerbaijan (three), Turkmenistan (two), Bulgaria, Iraq, Russia and Ukraine (one each).
Construction and roadwork accounted for the most deaths with 50, followed by agriculture and forestry with 45, transportation with 28 and municipal and general services with 16.
Traffic accidents were the leading cause of death, claiming 49 lives. Falls from heights accounted for 41 deaths, while 40 workers died in crushing incidents and collapses.
Only seven of the 226 workers who died were union members, while 219, or nearly 97 percent, were not unionized.
İstanbul recorded the highest number of deaths, with 39, followed by Gaziantep (nine), Ankara and Şanlıurfa (eight each) and Düzce and Manisa (seven each).
İSİG compiles its figures from national and local media reports and information provided by workers, their families, workplace safety experts, occupational physicians and labor unions.
The group documented 2,105 work-related deaths in 2025, the highest annual total in at least a decade. They also recorded at least 852 child worker deaths over the past 13 years.
The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) ranked Turkey among the 10 worst countries in the world for workers in its 2026 Global Rights Index, citing union-busting, restrictions on strikes and the targeting of trade union leaders.
