Agricultural Child Worker Loses His Life in Urfa

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A child worker, who fell into a cotton gin tied to a tractor in a cotton field in Turkey's southeastern province of Urfa, has lost his life.

As reported by the Demirören News Agency (DHA), agricultural child worker Ahmet Çiftçi lost his balance while standing on a tractor and fell into the cotton gin tied to the tractor.

Upon seeing that the child had fallen into the machine, the driver of the tractor stopped the vehicle and called out for help. Fire brigade and health teams came to the scene of incident upon being called.

The deceased body of Ahmet Çiftçi has been taken to the Forensic Medicine Institute for post-mortem examination.

67 child workers lost their lives in 2018

According to the data previously shared by the Laborers' Health and Occupational Safety (İSİG) Assembly, at least 67 child workers lost their lives in occupational homicides across Turkey throughout 2018. While 23 of the deceased children were at/under the age of 14, the remaining 44 children were between the ages of 15 and 17.

With the aim of struggling against child labor, the Ministry of Labor and Social Services also prepared a "National Program for Struggle Against Child Labor" and declared 2018 as "the Year of Struggle Against Child Labor". (AÖ/SD)