How can the problems of seasonal agricultural workers be solved?

First, let us address a reality that some prefer not to see: the issue of “Seasonal Agricultural Workers.”

Every year, millions of migrant seasonal workers travel from the Eastern and Southeastern regions—primarily provinces such as Şanlıurfa, Adıyaman, Diyarbakır, Batman, Mardin, and Şırnak—to different parts of Turkey to work from spring until autumn.

The number of Syrian refugees working as seasonal agricultural laborers has also been quite high in recent years.

The work schedule for seasonal laborers is determined by the harvest times of the crops.

Will there be no solution?

The working conditions of seasonal agricultural workers were first regulated by the Prime Ministry Circular No. 2010/6. Later, with the emergence of the coronavirus, the services that could be provided in seasonal agricultural work were updated with the Prime Ministry’s Circular No. 2017/6 in 2017.

Experts stated that, according to the circular, additional measures that could be taken under pandemic conditions should have been considered in the action plans prepared for 2020 in provinces that both send and receive migrant labor.

In this context, for provinces sending migrant labor:

“1. Ensuring that clear information is collected regarding the regions where workers will go, the number of workers going to those regions, and the ages and numbers of other family members accompanying them, and that this information is reported to the destination provinces,

2. In order to protect them against the virus, ensuring that elderly individuals over 65, who are subject to curfews and travel bans, are persuaded to stay in their homes, or if possible, in hotels or nursing homes, and that they do not participate in the migration,

3. Developing opportunities in cooperation with the Provincial Directorate of National Education to address the deficiencies of school-age children who are persuaded to stay at home with their elders and who have missed out on or could not benefit from remote education,

4. Ensuring that workers and their family members are screened for the virus before departure, and preventing those who test positive and their family members from migrating by placing them under quarantine. Since seasonal agricultural work is their sole source of income, measures should be taken to compensate for their loss of income,

3. Ensuring that the transportation of agricultural workers from their places of residence to the regions where they will work is carried out with appropriate vehicles within the framework of virus protection rules,

4. Ensuring that agricultural workers are informed about the importance of social distancing in vehicles, housing, and workplaces, as well as the importance of personal hygiene, especially hand washing, with the support of Provincial Public Health Directorates in the context of protection from the virus outbreak,”

And for provinces receiving migrant labor:

1. Ensuring that the Governorates establish temporary settlement areas with healthy facilities in places where seasonal agricultural workers work intensively, where they can meet their basic needs and engage in educational and social activities,

2. Considering organizations that can contribute to the education of children and young people of school age who come with their families,

3. Providing all kinds of health screenings and services, including those for epidemic diseases, to seasonal agricultural workers,

4. Explaining to employers who will hire seasonal agricultural workers the importance of social distancing, personal hygiene—especially hand washing—and nutrition, which must be taken into account while working to keep those who arrive away from the virus outbreak,

5. Ensuring that employers are informed that seasonal agricultural workers under the age of 18 cannot be employed,” they state.

The circular and the measures mentioned by the experts are fine, but what are the real questions that should be asked?

Is there a solution in the call regarding seasonal agricultural workers?

Could the following be asked?

• Will seasonal agricultural labor in Turkey continue forever? In other words, will the root cause that creates seasonal agricultural labor not be solved? Shouldn't we look at the issue from this perspective as well?

• Is the region's feudal structure and the problem of underdevelopment not at the root of seasonal agricultural labor? Is the problem not also being exploited by the separatist terrorist movement?

• Is unemployment not fueled by landlessness, insufficient land, and the lack of industry and service sectors in the region?

What is the solution?

The first pillar of the solution is the realization of the “Social State Principle” in the region. This has three interconnected stages; what are they?

• Implementing a permanent land reform,

• Making cooperative organization of farmers dominant alongside land reform,

• Establishing agro-industry under public guidance and sovereignty.

The second pillar is the strong revival of the national and secular education and the principle of unity in education, which was initiated with the Republic in Turkey, instead of the increasingly strengthening religious education.

In fact, do the issues mentioned not concern all of Turkey, not just the East and Southeast?

As I conclude my article, I would like to express one more point. After my article titled “Is there a solution to the problems of the Kurdish peasantry in the call?”, I received some criticism, albeit very few, from some readers claiming that “there is no feudalism in the region.”

Let me give a small reminder to those who say “there is none”: “Is the silence following the Narin Güran murder not the result of a feudal culture, which is a reflection of the feudalism that exists in the region?”