12-year-old child worker loses his life in irrigation pond

* Source and news: Anadolu Agency (AA)

Click to read the article in Turkish

Going into an irrigation pond to take his stick that had fallen in the water, a 12-year-old child worker has lost his life.

Shepherding his family's cattle with his brother in Turkey's southeastern province of Antep, Hamza Çökükoğlu threw his stick into the water, saying that he saw fish in the pond. He went into the pond to take back his stick. As he could not get out of the water, his brother informed their family.

The child was unconscious when he was taken out of the water. He was taken to the Nurdağı Public Hospital by paramedics. Hamza Çökükoğlu lost his life there despite all efforts of the physicians.

The dead body of the child has been sent to the Gaziantep Forensic Medicine Institution for autopsy.

According to the recent data shared by the Health and Safety Labor Watch (İSİG Assembly), at least 177 workers lost their lives in occupational homicides in September 2020 and at least 1,493 workers lost their lives while working in the first nine months of 2020. While six of the deceased were children in September, seven of them were women, five were migrants (three from Syria and two from Afghanistan) and four were unionized workers.

Making a statement on the occasion of June 12 World Day Against Child Labor, Minister of Family, Labor and Social Services Zehra Zümrüt Selçuk said that Turkey's struggle against child labor was successfully continuing and indicated that the rate of child labor dropped from 10.3 percent in 1999 to 4.4 percent in 2019. (AÖ/SD)