AP PHOTOS: 'These streets are ours': The hidden workforce that scours Istanbul's garbage

ISTANBUL (AP) — The clang of makeshift carts echoes through winding alleys in one of Istanbul 's oldest neighborhoods as a hidden workforce scours the streets looking for recyclable paper, cardboard and plastic.

Their ranks have grown in recent years as Turkey’s cost of living surged, pushing thousands of men, women and even children to look for alternative income options to get by.

The narrow cobblestone lanes of Eminonu, an area packed with bazaars and crowded restaurants, are the collectors' main hunting grounds, where they blend into Istanbul’s bustle.

Ergin Dogan, 29, says he has pulled his rickety cart through these streets since he was a boy. He remembers how his father struggled to make ends meet in their hometown of Nigde in central Turkey before the two came to Istanbul, Turkey's biggest city, to try their luck here.

But it hasn't been easy.

“I left school at 13," Dogan said. “We sleep in dilapidated buildings near Suleymaniye Mosque, with dirty blankets and no real shower.”

They work from early morning till late at night. When a metal bar broke on Dogan's cart on one of his garbage runs, he stopped only briefly to duct tape it.

In the evening, his father brings his truck around and they load up the days’ haul of paper and plastic from Dogan and others in the area to sell to recycling facilities. After being processed, it will be used in industrial applications or reused as carton and paper.

Late at night, thieves sometimes stop them on the streets, asking for money.

“If we refuse, they threaten us,” Dogan says. "We work more than 12 hours, sometimes 17 (a day). If we take a day off, we go hungry.”

Dogan's cousin, 28-year-old Ergun Dogan, Ergun's younger brother Mehmet Dogan, 16, and their father, Serdar Dogan are also trash scavengers.

The cousin recounts how, if a sack on his cart accidentally touches a passer-by, the person often gets upset and tell him to “get your dirty thing away from me.”

Cumali Bakir, who oversees a recycling depot and buys from collectors like the Dogan cousins, says their jobs should be made official, and that they should be given proper “vests and meal cards.”

“They pull 150-kilogram carts uphill, often on an empty stomach,” Bakir said.

In the shadows of Istanbul’s grand minarets that pierce the skies and bustling ferry docks, 16-year-old Mehmet says he has been working since dropping out of eighth grade.

“Sometimes I see kids my age hanging out, and I’m ashamed," he says. "I wish I could study and have fun with friends.”

Their father, Serdar Dogan, 48, has been collecting paper since 1995. “My life has been a disgrace," he said. “I have no hope that it will change.”

Persistent inflation under the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, rising energy prices and the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic have left many families struggling to afford food and rent. They have also driven more people into the informal economy.

Annual inflation in Turkey stood at 39.05% in February, according to official figures, while some economists believe the real rate is higher. An estimated 13.6% of Turkey's population was in poverty in 2024.

Through all this, the largely unseen trash scavengers continue to haul their bulging sacks.

“We are the real owners of Istanbul; these streets are ours,” says Ergin Dogan. “If there is a fire, we are the first to run to help. We love this city, but it doesn’t love us back."

A man carries a sack with discarded cartons at Eminonu commercial area in Istanbul, Turkey, Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

Mehmet Dogan, 16, pulls his cart full of discarded cartons and plastic items at Eminonu commercial area in Istanbul, Turkey, Sunday, Feb. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

Veysel Dogan smokes a cigarette as he and his sons load a lorry with discarded cartons at Eminonu commercial area in Istanbul, Turkey, Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

Veysel Dogan, right, and his two sons Ergin, left, and Murtaza load a lorry with discarded cartons at Eminonu commercial area in Istanbul, Turkey, Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

A man pulls his cart full of discarded cartons past Yeni mosque on a rainy day in Istanbul, Turkey, Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

Men gather discarded cartons, metal and plastic items in Istanbul, Turkey, Tuesday, March 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

A garbage collector loads his cart with plastic bottles in Cihangir neighborhood in Istanbul, Turkey, Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

A man pulls a trolley with discarded metal items in Istanbul, Turkey, Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

Hikmet Kilic loads a lorry with discarded cartons in Istanbul, Turkey, Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

Hikmet Kilic shows his hands as he works gathering discarded cartons and plastic bottles in Istanbul, Turkey, Tuesday, March 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

A man pulls a sack full of discarded cartons and plastic items to be separated in Istanbul, Turkey, Tuesday, March 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

Youngsters carry bags full of plastic bottles at Tophane district in Istanbul, Turkey, Sunday, Feb. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

A cart mostly full with plastic bottles is parked in Istanbul, Turkey, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

Ergin Dogan, 29, pulls his cart with discarded cartons and metal cans at Eminonu commercial distric in Istanbul, Turkey, Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

A woman pulls her cart along a commercial street in upper class Sisli neighborhood in Istanbul, Turkey, Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

A man pushes his cart with discarded plastic items and cartons at Kadikoy district in Istanbul, Turkey, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

A man looks for plastic items at Karakoy ferry terminal in Istanbul, Turkey, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

A man pulls his cart full with plastic items at Sirkeci area in Istanbul, Turkey, Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

A man pulls his cart with plastic bottles and discarded cartons at main Istiklal street in Istanbul, Turkey, Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

Ergin Dogan, 29, gather sacks full of discarded carton and papers at Eminonu commercial district in Istanbul, Turkey, Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

Ergin Dogan, 29, pulls his cart as he harvests for discarded cartons next to Yeni mosque in Istanbul, Turkey, Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

TECOLUCA, El Salvador (AP) — U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Wednesday visited the high-security El Salvador prison where Venezuelans who the Trump administration alleges are gang members have been held since their removal from the United States. The tour that included two crowded cell blocks, the armory and an isolation unit.

Noem's trip to the prison — where inmates are packed into cells and never allowed outside — comes as the Trump administration seeks to show it is deporting people it describes as the “worst of the worst.”

The Trump administration is arguing in federal court that it was justified in sending the Venezuelans to El Salvador, while human rights activists say officials have sent them to a prison rife with human rights abuses.

At the prison, Noem toured an area holding some of the Venezuelans accused of being gang members. In the sweltering building, the men in white t-shirts and shorts stared silently from their cell without making a sound.

When Noem exited the building, the men could be heard shouting an indiscernible chant.

In a post on X Wednesday, Homeland Security indicated it would continue working with El Salvador, saying that Noem was slated to discuss how the U.S. can “increase the number of deportation flights and removals of violent criminals from the U.S." during her visit with President Nayib Bukele.

Since taking office, Noem has frequently been front and center in efforts to highlight the immigration crackdown. She took part in immigration enforcement operations, rode horses with Border Patrol agents and was the face of a television campaign warning people in the country illegally to self-deport.

Noem’s Wednesday visit is part of a three-day trip. She'll also travel to Colombia and Mexico.

The Venezuelans were removed from the U.S. this month after Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 and said the U.S. was being invaded by the Tren de Aragua gang. The Alien Enemies Act gives the president wartime powers and allows noncitizens to be deported without the opportunity to go before an immigration or federal court judge.

In a setback for the administration, an appeals court Wednesday kept in place an order barring the administration from deporting more Venezuelan immigrants to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act.

A central outstanding question about the deportees’ status is when and how they could ever be released from the prison, called the Terrorism Confinement Center, as they are not serving sentences. They no longer appear in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s online detainee locator and have not appeared before a judge in El Salvador.

The Trump administration refers to them as the “worst of the worst” but hasn't identified who was deported or provided evidence that they’re gang members.

Relatives of some of the deportees have categorically denied any gang affiliation. The Venezuelan government and a group called the Families of Immigrants Committee in Venezuela hired a lawyer to help free those held in El Salvador. A lawyer for the firm, which currently represents about 30 Venezuelans, said they aren't gang members and have no criminal records.

The U.S. government has acknowledged that many do not have such records.

Flights were in the air March 15 when a federal judge issued a verbal order temporarily barring the deportations and ordered planes to return to the U.S.

The Trump administration has argued that the judge’s verbal directions did not count, that only his written order needed to be followed and that it couldn’t apply to flights that had already left the U.S.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that about 261 people were deported on the flights, including 137 under the Alien Enemies Act.

Bukele opened the prison in 2023 as he made the Central American country’s stark, harsh prisons a trademark of his fight against crime. The facility has eight sprawling pavilions and can hold up to 40,000 inmates. Each cell can fit 65 to 70 prisoners.

Prisoners can't have visitors. There are no workshops or educational programs.

El Salvador hasn’t had diplomatic relations with Venezuela since 2019, so the Venezuelans imprisoned there do not have consular support from their government.

Video released by El Salvador’s government after the deportees' arrival showed men exiting airplanes onto an airport tarmac lined by officers in riot gear. The men, who had their hands and ankles shackled, struggled to walk as officers pushed their heads down.

They were later shown at the prison kneeling on the ground as their heads were shaved before they changed into the prison’s all-white uniform — knee-length shorts, T-shirt, socks and rubber clogs — and placed in cells.

For three years, El Salvador has been operating under a state of emergency that suspends fundamental rights as Bukele wages an all-out assault on the country's powerful street gangs. During that time, some 84,000 people have been arrested, accused of gang ties and jailed, often without due process.

Bukele offered to hold U.S. deportees in the prison when U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited in February.

At the prison Wednesday, El Salvador Justice Minister Gustavo Villatoro showed Noem a cell holding Salvadorans he said had been there since the prison opened. “No one expects that these people can go back to society and behave,” he said.

Santana reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Marcos Alemán in San Salvador, El Salvador, contributed to this report.

As prisoners stand looking out from a cell, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks during a tour of the Terrorist Confinement Center in Tecoluca, El Salvador, Wednesday, March 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

U.S. Ambassador William H. Duncan, left, receives Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem after she arrived at the Comalapa International Airport, in San Salvador, El Salvador, Wednesday, March 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

U.S. Ambassador William H. Duncan, left, receives Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem after she arrived at the Comalapa International Airport, in San Salvador, El Salvador, Wednesday, March 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

U.S. Ambassador William H. Duncan receives Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem as she deplanes at the Comalapa International Airport, in San Salvador, El Salvador, Wednesday, March 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem arrives to board her plane, Wednesday, March 26, 2025, at Joint Base Andrews, Md. Noem is traveling to El Salvador, Colombia and Mexico. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem boards her plane, Wednesday, March 26, 2025, at Joint Base Andrews, Md. Noem is traveling to El Salvador, Colombia and Mexico. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks at U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak during a tour, Monday, March 17, 2025, in Kodiak, Alaska. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

In this photo provided by El Salvador's presidential press office, prison guards transfer deportees from the U.S., alleged to be Venezuelan gang members, to the Terrorism Confinement Center in Tecoluca, El Salvador, Sunday, March 16, 2025. (El Salvador presidential press office via AP)