HDP co-chair Mithat Sancar visited seasonal workers in onion fields in Ankara and listened to the problems described in Turkish, Arabic and Kurdish of the people from Urfa, Mardin and Hesekê living in tents.
Mithat Sancar, co-chair of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), visited seasonal workers in onion fields in Şereflikoçhisar district of Ankara. The Turkish-, Kurdish- and Arabic-speaking field workers are housed in tents and told the HDP co-chair about their precarious living situation. The main problems are the temporary housing, water, electricity, cleanliness and discrimination.
Sancar explained after the talks on Saturday that nearly 1500 people are living in tents. 700 of them work in the onion fields, the others are family members. The majority come from the provinces of Urfa and Mardin, while others come from Hesekê in northern Syria and live as refugees in Urfa. Their living conditions are extremely precarious and inhumane, Sancar said and continued;
"There are many children who do not go to school. The need is mainly for running water and electricity. Everyone has brought that up. There are about ten more areas like this one. So there are 15,000 people living here in these conditions. And why? Why do people have to live in such harsh conditions in this kind of environment just to earn their daily bread? If the resources of this country were distributed fairly, no one would have to live in this poverty. However, the resources go to government supporters and to war. The agricultural workers are the ones among the laborers who have to work in the most difficult conditions. We always say that, but it is a special experience to see the living conditions here with our own eyes. We will work to solve people's problems. That's what we promise our brothers and sisters here."
According to Sancar, up to 150,000 workers are deployed in the area during harvest: "Why isn't a tent city built with electricity? These people have been coming here for years to work. Why aren't they provided with clean water? The answer is clear, the answer is this broken system. The answer is a dirty system that allows the resources of this country to flow into the profit of government supporters."
This system must be changed together, the HDP co-chair said, "We will make sure that people can live in dignity. This is our priority task. Poverty is the common problem of the peoples. It has been named here in all languages and we must fight against it."
