HDP Muş MP Burcu Çelik’s 3 year old daughter Asmin Mira being brought to her mother in prison this week has brought the issue of children in prisons to the fore. HDP Adana MP Meral Danış Beştaş took the issue to the parliament and demanded the sentences be postponed until the children grow up.

The 560 children who have to live with their mothers in Turkey’s prisons were taken to the Parliament’s agenda by HDP Adana MP Meral Danış Beştaş.

Beştaş pointed out that only 100 out of the 560 children had any access to actual earth because they are held in open prisons along with their mothers and said HDP Muş MP Burcu Çelik’s 3 year old daughter Asmin Mira was brought to her mother in Ankara Sincan Prison where they will stay together from now on. Beştaş demanded a legal amendment on the issue, saying: “Let us do something all together so children won’t be stuck behind walls, so they can see the sky at night, so they can ride bikes and be children.”

There are 200.000 arrestees and convicts in Turkey’s prisons, and 128 one year old babies, 114 two year old babies, 81 three year old children, 70 four year old children and 32 five year old children.