Turkey's Scrap Metal Boom: Built on Child Labor, Fueled by Western Demand
While mainstream outlets focus on 'economic growth,' The New Arab's latest investigation, 'Scrap wars: How child labour and conflict feed Turkey steel boom,' paints a darker picture: children as young as 12 sifting through bombed-out Syrian and Libyan ruins, feeding a lucrative scrap metal pipeline to Turkish steel mills. These mills then supply Europe’s industrial giants. It's the classic 'out of
sight, out of mind' production model, where the human cost is outsourced along with the labor. This isn't just about 'scrap wars'; it's about a global economic system that thrives on conflict and desperation. As long as Western demand for cheap materials continues, warlords and exploiters will find innovative ways to meet it, often with the most vulnerable paying the highest price. One might
wonder if the 'conflict' in Syria and Libya isn't just a humanitarian tragedy, but also a convenient source of raw, cheap materials for the global supply chain – a supply line where a child's toil in a rubble heap is just another input cost.