Dock worker drowns after falling into water without life vest 

A 20-year-old dock worker in Istanbul's Tuzla dockyard, on Monday died after falling into the sea, once again raising concern over work-place safety in Turkey, the Kronos news website reported.

Ibrahim Dal's body was discovered two hours later, and he was not wearing a life-vest, which according to regulations he should have been wearing. In a Twitter post the Health and Safety Labor Watch (İSİG) said it was outrageous the employer's had not ensured workers were wearing their safety equipment.

Tuzla Tersaneleri'nde 220. iş cinayeti..İbrahim Dal..20 yaşında..Hidrodinamik Tersanesi'nde dubanın üstünde çalışırken denize düşmesi sonucu hayatını kaybetti..Can yeleği yoktu, ölümü iki saat sonra fark edildi..Çalışmak için Şanlıurfa'dan gelmişti..v/@Limter_is pic.twitter.com/mGaSWNi9zY

Sevda Karaca from the leftist Labor Party (EMEP) said in a Twitter post that Dal's employers had not provided him with a life-vest in the first place. "A simple life-vest is worth more than a worker's life," she said. "In the first four months of this year 220 workers died in accidents in Tuzla dockyards and we are supposed to call this fate or destiny? Enough is Enough!"

Dal had moved to Istanbul from southeastern Sanliurfa province to work at the dockyard.

People have been suffering from lax work safety standards for decades in Turkey, where workplace accidents are nearly a daily occurrence.

According to a recent report by İSİG, Turkey has recorded 31,131 deaths in work-related accidents since the Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in November 2002.

According to Çakır, workers feel obliged to work under unsafe conditions fearing that they will become jobless and be unable to support their families.

İSİG began to record occupational fatalities in 2011. The platform also records the number of workers who died due to the lack of work safety in past years in addition to campaigning for stricter measures to maintain safety in workplaces.