Turkey: 40 children abandoned every day

di Asli Kayabal According to the Turkish Government Parliamentary Commission for Childrens Rights the number of children abandoned or involved in organised criminality could raise up to 100.000 in the next five years. “In Turkey in the last three years 40 children a day have been abandoned” says prof. Oguz Polat, director of the Legal Medicine department at the Marmara University. “Because of the economic crisis which struck the county in 2003, this number has quadruplicated”. Polat, who is the current president of Cikored (The Turkish Association for Protecnion and Rehabilitation of Juvenile from Exploitation), states that “all over Turkey, the total number of 0-12 years olds whi live in infancy centers in the infancy centers are 7338”. Vita: 40 children abandoned per day is a very high figure. In your opinion what is the cause behind this phenomenon? Polat: This tendency could be understood by looking at the economic crisis and the rapid growth of the shanty towns. If a breadwinner looses their job, their children may leave the school, and became forced to work in the streets, selling handkerchiefs or washing the windshields at the traffic lights. As time goes on they take on economic responsabilty that families cannot do without, and this may cause them to enter in the sphere of action of smuggling groups. Vita: Compared to Brasil how does the turkish situation appear? Polat: In Latin America the population of children is very high because of the lack of demografic policies. In this regard Turkey is similar to Brasil, even if fortunately there aren?t the armed groups that threaten the safety of those who live on the streets. Vita: Which are the main dangers that turkish children are exposed to? Polat: There isno one who looks after them. They live according to the street?s rules, are exposed to the risk of becoming aggressive and maladjusted. They are also exposed to the nationalist ideology, which is growing more and more within the youngsters. Vita: The number of children sentenced for crimes is also increasing? Polat: This is true: statistics say these was 1672 in 2002 and up to 3000 in 2005. Vita: And there are 10 million turkish people facing the famine. Polat: According to a recent reseach, in France one in ten childrens are poor. In the UK the population of poor people amounts to 4.4million. In Italy 18% children are under the poverty line, and even in Europe this percentage is increasing. How could a country like Turkey work out a problem of such an extension? Our government works day to day and isn?t able to bring out specific policies to fight this social evil.