ERSİN ÇELİK / SONGÜL ADSIZ

ADANA (DİHA) - In Tuzla Region appertaining to Karataş district of Adana, thousands of seasonal workers who came to agricultural areas are laboring under difficulties. While workers, who choose one city each season, laboring 12-14 hours a day for 18 TL, they pay 10 percent of their daily fee to "emissaries".

Each year thousands of people flock to western cities, especially Adana, to work in seasonal business. Workers, who were named as "farmhand-ırgat" in the past and nowadays are named as seasonal workers, according to climatic and seasonal properties of the city they went work in orchards or vegetable gardens for a daily fee of 18 TL. In the agricultural areas of Tuzla Region appertaining to Karataş district of Adana, workers pay 10 percent of this daily fee to people called "emissary" who are contact men between workers and owners of the areas and transport the workers to the areas.

'We didn't derive benefit from (GAP) in Urfa'

While Kafur, Ahmet and Ramazan Kaşarak, who lives in villages composed of tents in Tuzla, are noting that they went to work in Konya, Manisa and İzmir as well as Adana, they express their desperation. Workers say "We are here with our families. We go to field to work from 6 am until the falling of darkness. We are collecting watermelon, melon and pepper and hoeing and spading the field now". Workers denoting that they will stay in Tuzla until the end of summer say:

"It is mandatory for us to come here since there is no job opportunity in our homelands. Our work here is not easy, we don't have insurance and our life is not good. In winter, snow, rain, mud, in summer warm climate conditions make it hard to live for us. Our children can not go to school regularly and their childhoods are wasted here. The conditions of our tents show you our status".

On the other hand, they indicated that except some rich families all population in their homelands goes to work in different cities. Workers said "We are coming here because of poverty. If there were job opportunities in our homelands, we wouldn't come here. People say there is (GAP) but we haven't got any benefit from it".

The biggest difficulties affect women

Moreover, Adile Alacan (19), Ayfer Öğüt (21), Çiğdem Ekincioğlu (16), Adalet Ekincioğlu (17) and Feride Öğüt (23) form women who face the biggest difficulties due to seasonal work, told what they lived:

"Connected men say 'if it suits you work otherwise don't'. We stay mostly 3 months a year. You are already seeing difficulties". Zeynep Öğüt (28), who has a child and came from Siverek, said that she is there for six 6 months. Mother of seven Hanife Ekincioğlu (35) denoted "I gave birth to seven children and raised them in this disgracefulness not in a clean house. They mostly interfere in even our speech in Kurdish. They tell us 'Speak Turkish'.".

(ge/gü)