British media: Turkey is becoming a European "garbage dump"

Turkey is becoming the "garbage dump" of Britain and EU countries. According to the British "Guardian" reported on the 21st, in recent years, due to the large amount of garbage exported to Turkey in the United Kingdom and the European Union in recent years, workers at the country's garbage recycling stations, especially the health of children's workers, have been greatly threatened.

As a member of the Economic Cooperation and Development Organization, Turkey has received a large number of garbage from the European Union and the United Kingdom in recent years. In 2021, the EU's plastic waste exports to Turkey has increased from approximately 39,000 tons in 2017 to 450,000 tons, an increase of increase As high as 1200%; in the same year, Britain also exported about 120,000 tons of plastic garbage to Turkey. The latest report of the non -governmental organization "Human Rights Observation" shows that the Turkish government has failed to strictly implement the laws of regular inspection of the garbage recycling center, which has exacerbated the impact of imported garbage on the local environment and workers' health. Workers in the garbage recycling center, including children, and family members living nearby are generally suffering from severe headaches, respiratory diseases, and skin diseases. These garbage cause lifelong damage to their health.

"The richest country in Europe is transporting its garbage to Turkey and bringing serious environment and health risks to the most vulnerable communities in the local area, including children, refugees and immigrants." Said, the chief researcher of "human rights observation", said, " "For this reason, we call on the United Kingdom, the European Union, and other countries to manage our garbage in their respective territory, rather than exporting it to Turkey, which will cause harm to human health and human rights." In view of Turkey, "Import "Plastic waste ban", but then canceled the ban. Shenum also criticized the Turkish government that "although it has formulated regulations, it has not been implemented well and increases the health risks of the people." The expert of another international organization "Environmental Investigation Bureau" also said: The results of the "'Human Rights Observation" investigation report is deeply worried, which further illustrates the serious harm of global plastic waste trade. The same is true in the country. "

In Turkey, although the law is prohibited from hazardous waste such as garbage recycling under 18 years of age, "human rights observation" discovered that one -third of the plastic recycling workers in Istanbul and Adida were child workers or from childhood. Just engage in garbage recycling. It is reported that plastic waste will produce a large amount of harmful substances during the recovery process. They are discharged into the air, which will stimulate people's respiratory systems and eyeballs, causing cancer, nervous system and reproductive system damage. Residents near the garbage recycling station did not dare to open the window, and many of the workers working at the recycling station were refugees or unlicensed immigrants, and they could not be treated in a timely manner after illness.

In response to this, the Turkish government claimed that it was investigating in -depth; the British environment, food and rural affairs department admitted: "Britain should deal with more garbage in China." A spokesman for the European Commission also said, "Our garbage is our responsibility for our responsibility "It also said that more stringent measures will be taken to regulate exports, including independent review of destinations, and banning illegal export transactions, but currently do not include comprehensive prohibition of garbage exports," this is not in line with international trade rules. " ▲

Special reporter in France, Lu Ke

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