Türkiye records 216 worker deaths in November amid surge in child labor cases, 5 December 2025

At least 216 workers lost their lives in workplace incidents in Türkiye in November 2025, bringing the number of recorded “workplace deaths” for the first 11 months of the year to at least 1,956. The organization behind the figures says it is now focusing on two urgent fronts: the fight against deadly working conditions and the growing scale of child labor...

The compilers say they use the term “is cinayetleri”—literally “workplace murders”—to describe fatal occupational incidents that they view as preventable. They base about two-thirds of their information on national media reports and the rest on accounts from colleagues, families, occupational safety experts, workplace doctors, trade unions and local media...It also provides a breakdown by detailed branches such as mining, municipalities, petro-chemicals and rubber, metal, tourism and accommodation, energy, health, shipping, security, textiles, food, wood, paper, cement and glass...

The authors say that “factories, workshops, construction sites, small shops and shopping malls” now employ hundreds of thousands of children under titles such as apprentices or interns...The report recalls that 71 child workers were recorded as having died in 2024, which it describes as the year with the highest number of child workplace deaths at that time. By the end of November 2025, the number of child workers who had died had already reached 85...In November alone, at least 13 children lost their lives in workplace incidents. One was a child farmer, while twelve worked in sectors such as agriculture, food, chemicals, wood, office work and construction...The report records that 19 of the workers who died in November were women...At least 12 migrant workers are known to have died in the same month...

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