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(Adds reaction from Zara owner Inditex)
LONDON, Oct 24 (Reuters) - Syrian refugee children have beenworking in factories in Turkey making clothes for British highstreet retailer Marks & Spencer and online store ASOS, an investigation by BBC Panorama has found.
The investigation, broadcast on Monday evening, found Syrianrefugees as young as 15 working long hours for little pay,making and ironing clothes to be shipped off to Britain.
BBC journalists took photographs of Marks & Spencer labelsin the factories. Some Syrian refugees worked 12-hour days in afactory distressing jeans for fashion brands Mango and Zara,using chemicals with inadequate protection, the BBC said.
An M&S spokesperson said: "We had previously found noevidence of Syrian workers employed in factories that supply us,so we were very disappointed by these findings, which areextremely serious and are unacceptable to M&S."
M&S said it was working with the Turkish supplier to offerpermanent legal employment to any Syrian daily workers employedin the factory.
"Mango has zero tolerance towards the practices described inthe 'Panorama' programme," a Mango spokeswoman said.
The company said it had instructed an urgent and unannouncedaudit of the concerned facilities after the BBC's notification."Under no circumstances was the use of child labour of Syrianworkers detected," she said.
An ASOS spokeswoman on Monday said: "It's a subject we takeincredibly seriously. But it would be wrong for us to comment onreporting we haven't seen."
A spokeswoman from Inditex, which owns Zara, said thecompany had investigated Panorama's report. "The factory BBCrefers to - Goreteks - is a laundry that had already beenaudited by Inditex before Panorama's filming took place. It iscurrently the subject of improvement measures," she said.
The Inditex audit process was "a highly effective way ofmonitoring and improving conditions for workers," she said. "Westrongly reject any suggestion to the contrary."
Turkey has been a main entry point for refugees from theconflict in Syria, with three million of them estimated to beliving there. Ankara signed a deal with the European Union inMarch to stem the flow of refugees into the bloc.
A Reuters investigation this year also found evidence ofSyrian refugee children in Turkey working in clothes factoriesin illegal conditions. (Reporting by Helen Reid; Editing by Tom Heneghan)
