Foreign child workers exploited in sweatshops in Istanbul's Küçükpazar

The Küçükpazar neighborhood of Istanbul's Fatih district has become a center of sweatshops, where children from outside Turkey are forced to work in shocking conditions. 

The large commercial buildings in the narrow streets of Küçükpazar, behind the historical Süleymaniye Mosque, are today home to textile ateliers where many Syrians, Pakistanis, Iraqis and Turkmens can be spotted. Dozens of these workshops produce fake bags, mostly for export to Iraq. 

In one of the basement sweatshops where shirts are being produced, Hürriyet witnessed children working in conditions with no air conditioning or windows. 

Around 25 people were working in a tiny space corresponding to around double the size of a living room, including three children aged between 10 and 14. One of the children does ironing while the others do the packaging, working constantly from one duty to the next without stopping.

While the proportion of migrants in the sweatshop is very high, there are very few Turkish people working. 
The children could not respond to questions as they could not speak Turkish well, though one of the Turkish children said he understood the questions but did not want to answer.

"Talk to the boss," he said, pointing to the manger's room. 

The manager, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he was struggling to keep the business alive and had been forced to discharge a number of workers. He also claimed that the adults in the sweatshop were earning the minimum wage of 1,300 Turkish Liras (around $360).

When asked about the child workers, he failed to answer for a couple of minutes before saying they receive "pocket money" and do "not officially work for the business."

"They are the children of my friends...