More than 3.000 working children have been identified in the pilot provinces of the EU-funded Child Labour project. Those children are now going to school and are receiving education and support services from the project offices.

Child labour continues to be a serious problem in Turkey, and the EU-financed project contributes to the elimination of the worst forms of child labour in Turkey. The project enhances the national and local capacity to remove children from the worst forms of child labour and to prevent others from starting work.

On the occasion of the 1st National Conference on Child Labour, Ambassador Pierini noted “The EU attaches great importance to social issues in Turkey. The EU’s support to Turkey’s goal of eliminating child labour through this project is a very good example of EU-Turkey cooperation in the social field.”

The Project
The “Eradication of the Worst Forms of Child Labour in Turkey” project was officially launched in April 2006. The project is benefiting the Child Labour Unit of the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, and is implemented in 7 pilot provinces (Çankırı, Kastamonu, Sinop, Ordu, Erzurum, Elazığ, Van) with the technical assistance of the International Labour Organisation. The project has a budget of € 5.3 million.

The project has reached more than 3.000 children who were working, or at risk of work, in the streets, in industry or in agriculture. Most of these children are regularly coming to the project offices and receive various rehabilitation, education and socio-cultural services as well as material support. The children who benefit from the project services say: “We used to work in the streets as shoe polisher or handkerchief seller. We no longer work. We want to continue our education, and never want to go back to streets”.

The 1st National Conference under this project will be convened in İstanbul on 29-30 March 2007. The results of the child labour survey in the project provinces will be declared in the Conference. The Conference, which will start at 9:00 at Crowne Plaza Hotel, will be participated by the Minister of Labour and Social Security Mr. Murat Başesgioğlu, the Head of EC Delegation Ambassador Marc Pierini, the Governors of 7 project provinces, the Presidents of the Social Partners, and representatives of the project’s stakeholders.

For more information…
For further information please contact Mr. Numan Özcan from the EC Delegation (0312 459 87 00)