Post by account_disabled on Mar 13, 2024 1:02:51 GMT -5
In the rugged hills of the Black Sea coast of Türkiye, hazelnut production is still mostly manual and heavily reliant on seasonal hired labor. Each year, the start of the summer harvest (August to mid-September) is signaled by the arrival of migrants workers and their families. The Turkish Statistical Institute estimates that there are at least one million seasonal migrant workers in agriculture and more than 220,000 of them are children. Seasonal work bring thousands of migrants to Turkey, unfortunately leading to the prevalence of child labor on farms in Turkey. A tent settlement for seasonal hazelnut workers in Türkiye Most families are internal migrants from the poverty-stricken southeast region of Türkiye, near the border with Syria. Living in temporary tent settlements (sometimes without even clean water), parents have little choice but to bring their children to the farms. Under Turkish law, all seasonal agricultural work is classed as too hazardous for anyone under the age of 18 years.
Nevertheless, children on hazelnut farms are routinely tasked with exhausting and even dangerous work, such as carrying heavy loads up and down steep hillsides in blistering hot weather. In some areas, more than 40 percent of workers are aged 15-18, and up to 10 percent are even younger. Experts agree that getting children out of dangerous farm labor is imperative, yet the solution is far from simple. “A strictly punitive approach is often ineffective”, explains Kunera Moore, the Rainforest Alliance director for livelihoods and human BYB Directory rights. “Outright bans that, if broken, lead to immediate decertification, may seem an obvious answer, but this tends to drive abuses underground, making them much harder to detect.” On the farm: Building our child labor liaison network Our field teams have learned through experience that a collaborative approach better supports farmers to assess and address child labor on the ground.
Together with local NGOs and our partner companies (including leading nut traders and manufacturers), we have trained more than 6,500 farmers in targeted prevention, monitoring, and remediation strategies. We help farmers keep up-to-date records for each worker—clearly identifying whether they have children traveling with them—and work closely with local authorities to ensure that appropriate living and childcare facilities are available. “It’s often said that it takes a village to raise a child. And that’s exactly how we need to tackle child labor—with the involvement of the whole community.” TÜLAY GÜLEÇ, RAINFOREST ALLIANCE SOCIAL PROGRAM ASSOCIATE Farmers are also required to appoint community-based Child Labor Liaisons (CLLs) who undergo training in how to prevent and mitigate abuses at the farm level. Liaisons are carefully chosen and are generally respected figures in our partner communities—making them ideally placed to engage effectively with fellow farmers and workers: from listening to parents’ concerns to raising awareness of other critical issues, such as health and education.
Nevertheless, children on hazelnut farms are routinely tasked with exhausting and even dangerous work, such as carrying heavy loads up and down steep hillsides in blistering hot weather. In some areas, more than 40 percent of workers are aged 15-18, and up to 10 percent are even younger. Experts agree that getting children out of dangerous farm labor is imperative, yet the solution is far from simple. “A strictly punitive approach is often ineffective”, explains Kunera Moore, the Rainforest Alliance director for livelihoods and human BYB Directory rights. “Outright bans that, if broken, lead to immediate decertification, may seem an obvious answer, but this tends to drive abuses underground, making them much harder to detect.” On the farm: Building our child labor liaison network Our field teams have learned through experience that a collaborative approach better supports farmers to assess and address child labor on the ground.
Together with local NGOs and our partner companies (including leading nut traders and manufacturers), we have trained more than 6,500 farmers in targeted prevention, monitoring, and remediation strategies. We help farmers keep up-to-date records for each worker—clearly identifying whether they have children traveling with them—and work closely with local authorities to ensure that appropriate living and childcare facilities are available. “It’s often said that it takes a village to raise a child. And that’s exactly how we need to tackle child labor—with the involvement of the whole community.” TÜLAY GÜLEÇ, RAINFOREST ALLIANCE SOCIAL PROGRAM ASSOCIATE Farmers are also required to appoint community-based Child Labor Liaisons (CLLs) who undergo training in how to prevent and mitigate abuses at the farm level. Liaisons are carefully chosen and are generally respected figures in our partner communities—making them ideally placed to engage effectively with fellow farmers and workers: from listening to parents’ concerns to raising awareness of other critical issues, such as health and education.