Slideshow

“No to child labour in Turkey’s hazelnut gardens”

An ILO project prioritizes education as the main instrument to eliminate child labour in the country’s seasonal agriculture. So far, more than 1,200 children have benefitted from the project.

Article | 08 January 2016
SANLIURFA, Turkey (ILO News) – Turkey is the world’s largest producer of hazelnuts and accounts for 75 per cent of global production. The majority of hazelnut plantations are situated in the Black Sea region.

For economic and social reasons, the children of adult seasonal workers usually accompany their parents from place to place. They help their parents to make a living but they are in work that is unsuitable for their age. They mostly live in camp sites that lack basic infrastructure.

The ILO has responded to this situation through a series of public-private partnership projects called the “Elimination of Worst Forms of Child Labour in Seasonal Agriculture in Hazelnut Harvesting in Ordu”, and the “Integrated Model for the Elimination of Worst Forms of Child Labour in Seasonal Agriculture in Hazelnut Harvesting in Turkey” which were implemented in cooperation with the Turkish Ministry of Labour and Social Security (MoLSS).

The project in Ordu province has started in 2012 with financial contributions of the Association of Chocolate, Biscuit and Confectionery Industries of Europe (CAOBISCO) and the Government of the Netherlands. It prioritizes education as the main instrument to eliminate child labour in seasonal agriculture.

As a follow-up, the ‘Integrated Model’ has extended project activities to a wider geographic area (Ordu, Düzce, Sakarya and Şanlıurfa), and will run till the end of 2017.

The project aims at enhancing the capacity of local institutions in planning and managing activities to eliminate the worst forms of child labour in seasonal hazelnut harvesting, withdrawing child labourers from work and preventing children at risk from entering the sector. Awareness raising activities target families, employers, intermediaries, civil society and the media.

Between 2013 and 2015, 1281 children aged 4 to 16 have benefitted from the programme.