Piroz Zırığ/JINHA

DÎLOK – In Turkey’s city of Antep, the age at which labor begins to be exploited falls every day. Five-year-old children can now be found working in Antep’s streets. Among them are Huseyin, Zeynep and Ibrahim, whose struggle to survive displays the savagery of an exploitative system.

The industrial city of Antep is among the cities in Turkey where child labor is widespread. As Syrians are accepted into Turkey as refugees without necessary provisions for their survival, the rate of child labor in Antep has increased. Six months ago, young teenagers were visible in the streets, picking up waste and begging; now, the age of the children has fallen to below 10 years.

Huseyin, five years old, roams the main arteries of Antep with a sack on his back nearly three times his size. Although Huseyin is too young even to start school, he gathers waste in the streets of the large city. Every time we run into Huseyin, he is alone. When we ask Huseyin about his life, he is unwilling to answer any questions. All that we are able to learn is his name and that he works together with his older brother.

Five-year-old Zeynep is in a similar situation. Zeynep begs at the overpass in city’s Balıklı Park. She is willing to tell us her name, but will not say what brought her there or how she gets there every day.

Ibrahim, 10, begs at the stairs behind the old courthouse. He knows little Turkish, but is able to express himself. He says that he came here from Syria one year ago and that he is the oldest child in his family.

“My dad is sick,” says Ibrahim. “I’m the biggest kid in the family and my mom and dad don’t work. I don’t go to school and we came here running away from the war.”

(ck/mg/cm)