Turkish textile industry fears loss of their Syrian workers

“People from Syria have contributed a lot to the development of the textile sector in Turkey. If you go, we will have a serious workforce problem, ”says Ali Gözcü, Managing Director of Alg Tekstil, who illustrates the concern of this industry in Turkey.

While the Syrian population has been celebrating the fall of Bashar al-Assad since December, Turkish companies who like Gözcü in Gaziantep in the southeast of Turkey have quickly taken stock.

Gaziatep, near the border, about two hours from Aleppo, houses half a million Syrian: inside. “We do not expect an immediate exodus, but when it comes to this, we will suffer a serious shortage of labor,” Gözcü told AFP and specifies that 70 percent of his workers are Syrians: inside. Gözcü is not the only one who is worried. “All workers here are Syrians: inside,” confirms Yusuf Samil Kandil, quality controller at Beni Giy, in the Unal district, where textile companies line the dilapidated roads with their dusty shop windows, in which clothing racks and old -fashioned mannequins are located.

“When the Syrian workers go, our wage costs will increase sharply and thus also our production costs,” he affirmed. Turkey is the sixth largest textile producer in the world, and production focuses on the southeast of the country, where most Syrian refugees live – according to the authorities, around 2.9 million.

Officially, almost 100,000 Syrians have a work permit inside, but an expert: Inside, estimate that about a million of them work, mainly in the construction industry, in the processing industry and in the textile industry. Her departure could take a difficult stroke of this sector, which has already struggled with inflation and rising costs: it would be as if you were “sprinkling salt into an open wound,” says Kandil.

At the end of January, the Turkish Ministry of the Interior counted more than 81,000 returnees: inside to Syria since the fall of Bashar al-Assad. This number is likely to increase in June, the oath festival and after the end of the school year.

“Nobody anymore”

At ALG, dozens of young men and women who sit on their sewing machines produce thousands of T-shirts under the new Syrian flag with three stars hanging on the wall. “If the Syrians: go inside, nobody will be there to work anymore: 80 to 90 percent of employees here are from Syria,” explains Zekeriya Bozo, a 55-year-old worker who wants to return to Syria and “want to start a company there” .

However, the fears of a mass emigration are unfounded, my expert: inside, since the uncertainty about the Syria devastated by 13 years of war was still great. “Although they are very happy that Assad is gone, this was only one of the obstacles to their return,” explains Professor Murat Erdogan, whose annual study, the “Syria barometer”, the concerns of the refugees regarding security, conflict risk and emphasizes the destroyed infrastructure in their country.

Most Syrian refugees have settled in Turkey, where more than 970,000 babies have been born in the past twelve years. Despite often difficult working conditions, the Syrians knew that Turkey offers more than what they could find in Syria, the researcher said.

“The Syrian refugees say that they work very hard for very little money in Turkey. But at home, even if they found work, they would only earn $ 14 a month. The conditions are difficult in Turkey, but they earn much more, ”he adds. In his opinion, “a maximum of 20 percent of the Syrians will return to Syria in Turkey in Turkey, and that will take time”.

Relocation to Syria?

Ali Gözcü is already thinking about ways to maintain its production if his Syrian employees: inside, almost half of whom are from the Aleppo region on the other side of the border. “We are our Syrian worker very close to the inside. If you have problems returning to Turkey, we will open workshops in Syria for you, ”he swears.

Despite the state of the country and in particular the lack of electricity, Kemal Kirişci, migration expert at Brooking’s institution in Washington, sees the potential for future trade relationships. “Syria is a very promising country in the long term. Ideally, people should be able to travel in both directions. The Turkish industry and business will benefit from it, as well as Syria and its new regime, ”he says and speaks of the perspective of a“ shamed ”.

Following the model of the European Schengen area, it would guarantee free passenger traffic between Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. The project, launched in 2010, was discontinued due to the war in Syria.