A report on work safety released on Tuesday by the Laborers Health and Occupational Safety Assembly (İSİG) indicated that occupational accidents claimed the lives of 1,797 workers in Turkey in the first 11 months of 2018, the Diken news website reported.
According to the report, in the month of November alone, 154 workers, including four minors, 13 women and two immigrants died in the workplace.
The majority of occupational accidents occur in Turkey’s construction sector, with 24 percent of the total, followed by agriculture and transportation, at 21 percent and 16 percent, respectively.
Deputy Chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) Veli Ağbaba shared the report on Twitter, stating that Turkey leads in work-related deaths in Europe and ranks third in the world.
On Monday, an official statement issued in response to an opposition deputy’s question claimed that during the construction of İstanbul’s new airport 52 workers died in work-related accidents, the Cumhuriyet daily reported.
The airport was opened by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Oct. 29.
The statement was issued by the Arnavutköy district’s social security center in response to a question from CHP deputy Ali Şeker.