Zara, Mango, Asos, Marks and Spencer … Syrian refugees exploited in workshops in Turkey

Adults but also children, some younger than ten years …

They would be paid “just over a pound per hour, well below the Turkish minimum wage.” An investigation by the BBC made public on Tuesday, reveals the deplorable conditions in which some Syrian refugees in Turkey would work in sewing workshops, on behalf of subcontractors of major brands of clothing.

Adults but also children, some younger than ten years. Zara, Mango, Asos or Marks and Spencer are among the signs referred. “I was told that child labor was rampant in Turkey. But I did not imagine at this point, “says Darragh MacIntyre, the journalist who conducted the survey.
Without protection against chemicals

The reporter referred in particular to refugees working up to twelve hours a day in workshops using chemicals but providing no protection. Scenes that were quick in reacting relevant signs.

Just like Asos, directly challenged by a scene filmed on the site of one of its subcontractors. But for the sign, it is an “unauthorized works”, adding that the official workshops were, themselves, regularly monitored, says Le Monde.

Asos and Marks and Spencer react

Asos and as Marks and Spencer have announced that they “regularize all Syrian workers and help to finance the schooling of children toiling in workshops,” reports the daily.

To recall, last February, the NGO Business and Human Rights Resource Centre accused the Turkish textile factories of several major brands include among their employees of Syrian children arrived as refugees.