Report on the humanitarian situation of children in Türkiye

Capital: Ankara

Area: 783,562 km2

Population: 85,576,378

Form of government: Republic

 

Turkey, which is part of Asia, Europe, the Middle East and also the Mediterranean, is a distinct country due to its geographical location. It has a very diverse ethnic structure. 80% of the population is Turkish. The rest are minorities such as Kurds, Bosnians, Albanians, Georgians, Arabs and Armenians. The official language of writing and education is Turkish. Its religion is Islam and 98% of the population is Muslim.

 

If we look at the population of children and young people in the country, we see that the population aged 0-14 is 20,192,510 and the population aged 15-24 is 13,591,930. The child population rate in Turkey is 27.2%, which is the highest among the European Union countries. According to 2020, the average number of people in a family is 3.30. According to the United Nations definition, the number of children, including the age group 0-17, constituted 48.5% of the total population in Turkey in 1970, while this rate was 41.8% in 1990 and 27.5% in 2019.

It was observed that the average life expectancy of a child reaching the age of seven in Turkey is 72.3 years. The number of children per mother in the country is 2.6. According to 2019 statistics, 8.6 out of every 1,000 newborns, 11 out of every 1,000 children under the age of five, and 17 out of every 100,000 mothers die. The causes of child and maternal mortality can be considered as injuries and poisoning, diseases of the nervous system and sensory organs, benign and malignant tumors, congenital disorders and chromosomal abnormalities, circulatory diseases, and respiratory diseases.

The most common disease, especially in children, is upper respiratory tract infection. According to the results of the 2019 Turkey Health Survey, upper respiratory tract infections were the most common in the 0-6 age group with 35.9%; followed by diarrhea with 28.7%, lower respiratory tract infections with 9.5%, and anemia with 6.9%. Again, according to 2019 data, the largest number of child deaths in the 1-17 age group occurred as a result of external injuries and poisoning, with 1,326 people. 877 children died due to diseases of the nervous system and sensory organs, 684 due to benign and malignant tumors, and 509 due to congenital disorders and chromosomal abnormalities.

99% of young people across the country are literate. According to the statistics of the Ministry of National Education, the net school enrollment rate between 2019-2020 was 75% in preschool, 98% in primary school and 96% in secondary school. In recent years, there has been an increase in school completion rates at all levels of education. According to 2019, the literacy rate in Turkey is 96.7%. The number of children aged 5-17 across Turkey is estimated at 16,457,000. Children in this age group constitute 20.3% of the non-institutionalized population. According to 2020, the number of children aged 5-17 participating in any economic activity is 720 thousand. The employment rate, which shows the proportion of working children aged 5-17 among children in the same age group, is 4.4%. 79.7% of working children are in the 15-17 age group; 15.9% are in the 12-14 age group, and 4.4% are in the 5-11 age group. 65.7% of working children continue their education. Although Turkey is a party to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, basic policies regarding the protection of the “best interest of the child” have not yet been implemented. According to the latest data, the number of children who were victims of physical assault was 100, kidnapping and detention 153, domestic violence 368, intentional injury 74, failure to submit children's requests 145, attempted suicide 110, and sexual intercourse with a minor 289. Compared to 2020, the number of incidents involving children coming or being brought to security units decreased by 11.8% compared to 2019 and reached 450,803. It was noted that 60.7% of children were in the 15-17 age group, 20.2% in the 12-14 age group, and 19% in the 11-year-old age group and below. 68.7% of children who came or were brought to security units in 2020 were boys and 31.3% were girls. In addition, of the 150,615 children who came to security units as victims of crime, 55.3% were victims of injuries, 14.5% were victims of crimes against the family system, and 12.2% were victims of sexual crimes. In addition, 4.5% of child victims were threatened, 3% were deprived of liberty, and 2.1% were robbed. According to marriage statistics, while the marriage rate of girls aged 16-17 was 7.3% in 2002, it decreased to 2.7% in 2020. According to the 2020 Family Labor Force Survey report, the child labor force participation rate for the 15-17 age group is 16.2%. When this rate is examined by gender, it is 23.4% for boys and 8.6% for girls. The number of children aged 5-11 who are forced to work due to social orphanhood is 720,000 children. The distribution of children under the care of the Ministry of Family and Social Services is as follows: 6,132 in children's homes, 6,164 in children's homes, and 1,571 in child support centers. 17,403 children were given up for adoption, and 7,259 children were cared for by a foster family. In addition, the number of children supported by family care with socio-economic support (SED) is 128,047.

According to TÜIK data for 2020, the number of children who lost their fathers in Turkey was 269,202, the number of children who lost their mothers was 80,798, and the number of children who lost both their mothers and fathers was 4,518. According to the Ministry of Family, Labor and Social Services, the number of children in foster care is 7,864, the number of children in care in an institution is 13,524, and the number of adopted children is 493. Although there is no reliable data on the number of Syrian orphans in the country, this number is estimated at more than 300,000. According to the General Directorate of Migration Management, 1,680,214 of the 3,583,584 Syrian refugees in Turkey as of 2020 are children. IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation, which has been continuing its activities since 1992, is an organization that regularly takes care of more than 120 thousand orphans in 50 different countries on a monthly basis and provides them with support in areas such as education, health, food and shelter. By providing support to 40 orphanages in 13 different countries around the world, IHH provides regular support to approximately 15 thousand orphans in 77 provinces of Turkey. The number of orphans that IHH provides regular support to around the world is 800 thousand orphans.

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