1 Million Refugee Workers Laid-off Amidst COVID-19 Crisis

Photo: Ferid Demirel - bianet

Working people of Turkey celebrate the international workers day in a perplexing atmosphere as 31 major cities and towns, including capital Ankara, and major industrial and touristic cities and towns, İstanbul, Kocaeli, Sakarya, Adana, Mersin, Antalya, Eskişehir, Zonguldak and Diyarbakır, will remain under curfew for three days starting 1st of May. While outdoor rallies and marches are banned under public health concerns as well as security precauitons labor unions and left-wing parties had to carry traditional 1st of May celebrations on digital platforms and the social media.

The killing of a young refugee worker, Ali al-Hemdan, 19, in Adana on Tuesday (April 28) at a police checkpoint without any reasonable doubt also mars the already depressive mood prevailing across Turkey's suburbs inhabited by millions of precarious and informal Syrian refugee workers who have been fatally hit by the COVID-19 crisis.

Workers, beside the repressive political situation and unprincipled and arbitrary management of the COVID-19 crisis by the government, are further concerned for the looming wave of unemployment on the horizon. According to official figures, even prior to COVID-19 pandemic, the number of unemployed had already reached 4,4 Mn. However, economic analysts are of the opinion that in a larger definition of unemployment -i.e. including those who are already unemployed but not yet seeking a job- the real number of the unemployed strikes as high as 7 Mn -i.e. 20 percent of the work force. Added the underemployment caused by COVID-19 crisis, this figure further blows out to some 8 Mn and 23,6 percent of the total workforce.

According to a recent report by the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), 5,2 Mn more people have temporarily joined the army of the unemployed under forcible closure of 149 thousand 382 workplaces across the country as part of the government's health protection measures.

An Istanbul-based political research center IstanPol predicts that 3,2 Mn of those employees might lose their jobs permanently. According to a detailed analysis of 18 major sectors, "layoffs will mostly sweep construction, accomodation, catering and arts and culture" says Prof. Dr. Öner Günçavdı of the center. "In the worst case scenario income losses may peak around 75 percent," he adds.

Gülsüm Ağaoğlu, Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) spokesperson for refugees in a written statement points to the impact of the COVID-19 crises on the plight of the "invisibles" of Turkey's work force -the refugees.

"At least 1 Mn refugees mostly working in precarious and informal jobs have been laid off to starve together with their families," she observes. "Since two months, most of the 4 Mn refugees had to stand the pandemic without any income and security," Ağaoğlu told.

According to a February 2020 UNHCR report in 2019, more than 3,57 Mn Syrians almost half of whom are children were "registered under temporary protection" in Turkey. "Currently, over 98 percent of Syrians under temporary protection live in urban and rural areas (...) in the southeast of Turkey, as well as metropolitan cities such as Istanbul, Bursa, Izmir and Konya, mostly among members of the host community," the report reads.

HDP's Ağaoğlu highlights the refugees plight: "Alongside having been denied their salaries, which remained barely under the minumum wage, those laid off refugee workers are further unprovided of unemployment fees or any other regular support from similar funds. The prospects imposed on the refugee workers by precariousness and neglect is as fatal and traumatic as the pandemic as such." 

Indeed the refugees' stark employment and work conditions are confirmed also by the UNHCR report: "While Syrians under temporary protection have gradually managed to access work opportunities (i.e. 84 per cent of households report having a working family member), only 3 percent of working refugees are doing so being formally registered, with the provision of social security, job security and a minimum wage. 71 percent of households are unable to access skilled or reliable work. The employment situation within the host community is also challenging, with the unemployment rate reaching 13.9 percent and the rate of youth unemployment reaching 27.1 percent."

HDP's Ağaoğlu calls Turkey's working classes and the progressive community to extend their demands to embrace the rights and interests of the refugee workers. She urges that the refugee workers should be paid from the unemployment fund and provided free electricty, running water and heating; and protection for the women and children against domestic violence all along the pandemic crisis. 

"Hate speech, deepening racism and discrimination against the refugees should be effectiveley prosecuted. Since we will be living together herafter we should stop all exploitation of the refugee labour." (EK/SD)