The death of 15-year-old Muhammed Kendirci, an apprentice carpenter in Bozova, Turkey, has drawn renewed scrutiny to child labour practices and workplace safety failures after he died following a serious injury sustained at work in November 2025.
What happened
Kendirci was working at the carpentry workshop on 14 November when he sustained a serious internal injury involving a compressed air hose, allegedly during an incident involving coworker Habip Aksoy, 20, and another unidentified colleague. He was taken to Bozova Mehmet Enver Yıldırım State Hospital, then transferred first to Balıklıgöl State Hospital and later to Harran University Research and Application Hospital, where he was placed in intensive care. He died five days later, on 19 November.
The legal proceedings
Aksoy is being prosecuted for manslaughter with possible intent against a child, a charge that could carry a life sentence. He has maintained the incident was an accident that occurred during horseplay while helping clean dust off Kendirci's clothing, telling the court: "He was covered in dust. It happened while I was trying to clean it off. We were joking around at the time. I did not intend to kill him. I regret it."
What the prosecution has raised
Prosecutor Tugay Bek argued that the danger of the equipment involved should have been foreseeable, and highlighted a broader concern about the workplace itself, stating that only an employer and five employees worked at the site, with the children handling all of the actual labour and receiving no occupational health and safety training. This case has drawn attention to a wider pattern of concern around underage workers in informal trade apprenticeships, where safety oversight and training can be minimal or entirely absent.
His family's response
Kendirci's mother, Nebihe Kendirci, attended the court hearing and firmly rejected characterisations of her son's death as a joke or accident, saying: "We are pursuing justice so that those who took our child from us with a death machine operating at 12 bar receive the punishment they deserve. We call on everyone who cares, children's rights defenders and everyone who believes in justice to join our call. Do not remain silent. We will not stop until justice is served."
