BBC’s news covering Syrian refugee children in Turkey working in clothing factories that supply Marks and Spencer (M&S), Zara and Mango received stiff reaction from the industry.
A leading European ready wear and apparel supplier, Turkey faced a new debate after news that was released by BBC on October 24. Investigative BBC program Panorama uncovered Syrian refugee children in Turkey working in clothing factories that supply Marks and Spencer (M&S), Zara, Mango, and online fashion retailer Asos. Panorama team used a hidden cam at a ready wear house for news, while making interview with Syrians claimed to be working there. The episode “The Refugees Who Make Our Clothes’ stated that refugees usually worked for 12 hours and earner TL3.75 per hour.
Following the news by BBC Panorama reporter Darragh MacIntyre, an M&S spokesperson said: “Findings revealed in the program are extremely serious and are unacceptable to M&S.” Mango said the factory was working as a subcontractor without its knowledge. Its subsequent inspection did not find any Syrian workers. It found the conditions were ‘good’ except for some personal safety measures. Zara’s parent company, Inditex, had already found significant non-compliance in June and had given the factory until December to make improvements.
“News is a total complot”
The Istanbul Ready-made Clothing and Confection Exporters’ Association (IHKIB) President Hikmet Tanrıverdi and the Turkish Clothing Manufacturers’ Association (TGSD) President Şeref Fayat lashed out on BBC news, saying that it was not true. “Fly-by-night manufacturers were “secretly videotaped”. In addition, the use of child labor under age 15 is strictly forbidden by Turkish authorities amidst heavy sanctions. This is a smear campaign. Here, we frankly declare that any manufacturer which illegally employs child labor is a traitor.”
“As İHKİB, we investigated the issue and saw that the fly-by-night manufacturers in the story did not produce for any of the global brands that were mentioned in the same report. This is a fabricated scenario. We strongly condemn such unethical reporting with no solid proof that aims to create a bad image about our industry by threatening Turkey’s largest buyers such as Zara, Mango and Marks&Spencer. Turkey is one of the world largest producers of clothes, supplying many famous international brands in the most powerful and fast manufacturing style in the global market which scares others who try to disturb companies who have manufacturing in Turkey. However, we will defeat them,” Tanrıverdi continued. Also, he invited the BBC representatives to visit Turkey in order to tour all manufacturers which make production for global brands one by one.
TGSD President Şeref Fayat said it was unfair to present all Turkish textile exporters, who has a total export of USD18 billion, as abusers of child labor solely through some images that were secretly videotaped in a fly-by-night manufacturer. The news aimed to create a negative sense against Turkey and Turkish ready wear industry while it was a conflict to journalism ethics. Fayat stated, “Child labor has very strict sanctions in Turkey. All global brands which outsource manufacturing to Turkey inspect their producers very tightly and there are contracts with heavy sanctions. We are beware of the fact that a mistake from a supplier of ours would cost all of us as we sign agreements with global brands and we act in accordance. Plus, we control our sub-manufacturers. According to our examinations, the company mentioned in BBC news is a fly-by-night manufacturer in the story did not produce for any of the global brands that were mentioned. Even in such a case, we never tolerate any labor abuses as laws and regulation institutions.”