Report: At least 828 refugee workers killed on the job in Türkiye in a decade

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At least 828 refugee workers were killed on the job in Türkiye between 2013 and 2022, according to data from the Health and Safety Labor Watch (İSİG), a group monitoring work-related killings in Türkiye.

The groups published the report yesterday (December 18), on the occasion of International Migrants Day.

Killings of refugee workers made up 4.41 percent of all work-related killings in Türkiye, says the report. Fifty-one percent of the killed refugee workers were from Syria and 18 percent were from Afghanistan.

"The fact that seven of every 10 killed workers were those who became refugees because of wars shows that wars not only displace people but also cause 'proletarianization'," said İSİG.

Türkiye hosts over four million refugees, more than any other country in the world. More than 3.7 million of them are from Syria and 300,000 of them from Afghanistan, according to government figures.

Studies show that an overwhelming majority of refugee workers work in insecure and precarious conditions, and are often paid lower than the minimum wage. 

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"Migrant/refugee workers, which are seen as 'expendable workers' by bosses, are made work for long hours without any rules, with low wages and without occupational health and safety measures," the İSİG also stressed.

The highest number of killings of refugee workers occurred in the sectors of agriculture (29 percent) and construction (25 percent).

"The main reasons for deaths in the agriculture sector was the transportation of an excessive number of workers in tractor trailers ... and fallings from a height as a result of the failure to take measures in the construction sector," noted the report. (AÖ/VK)