Child labor is unfortunately nothing new when it comes to clothing manufacturing. Many low-cost brands are produced in third-world countries by underage kids in factories with dubious safety and environmental records. But a BBC investigation found a new group of children are being exploited in the industry: Syrian refugees.
The BBC went undercover to investigate claims that refugee labor was being used in clothing factories in Turkey, and found both Syrian children and adults working there. Children were found in factories producing British retailer Marks and Spencer and online retailer Asos, and adults in factories producing Zara and Mango.
“If anything happens to a Syrian, they will throw him away like a piece of cloth,” one Syrian refugee boy told the BBC, reporting that conditions in the factory where he worked were poor.
There are an estimated 3 million Syrian refugees in Turkey, and many do not have permits to work in the country legally, so they are forced to work in factories as day laborers. Many Syrian children are not in school, instead working to earn what little they can to help their families survive.
The BBC said the refugees were employed by a middle man who picked them up on the street and transported them to factories to work, and then paid them cash. They were paid only about 1 British pound an hour, which is about $1.20 and below Turkish minimum wage.
Three Syrian children under age 16 and 11 Syrian adults were found in a factory where clothing for popular online retailer Asos was made. The company told the BBC that its clothes were made in the factory but that the facility was not approved. Asos said the children will be financially supported so they can go back to school and adults will be paid until they are able to find legal employment.
“We have implemented these remediation programs despite the fact that this factory has nothing to do with Asos,” a company spokesperson told the BBC.
Adult Syrian refugees were also found distressing jeans for Zara and Mango, a process that involves using hazardous bleach. Most of the workers did not have a face mask. Mango said the factory was a sub-contractor it didn’t know about, and the company didn’t find any Syrian workers when it inspected the factory. Zara’s parent company said it had already found violations in its factory during a June audit, and the facility has until the end of the year to fix the issues.
According to the BBC, Marks and Spencer said its inspections haven’t found any Syrian refugees working in its supply chain in Turkey, but the investigation found seven Syrians in one of the retailer’s main factories. A spokesperson for the store said it would offer permanent legal employment to any Syrians working in its factory.
“Ethical trading is fundamental to M&S. All of our suppliers are contractually required to comply with our Global Sourcing Principles, which cover what we expect and require of them and their treatment of workers,” the Marks and Spencer spokesperson said. “We do not tolerate such breaches of these principles and we will do all we can to ensure that this does not happen again.”