The United Nations Refugee Agency has published a new, long report examining the situation for Syrian child refugees in refugee camps in neighboring countries, including in Jordan.
The report is divided into various sections and each comes with its own video.
The Future of Syria Report
An overview of the situation.
The report reads:
Perhaps the statistic we should pay the most attention to is: 29 per cent of children interviewed said that they leave their home once a week or less. Home is often a crammed apartment, a makeshift shelter or a tent.
It should be no surprise that the needs of these children are vast. Too many have been wounded physically, psychologically or both. Some children have been drawn into the war—their innocence ruthlessly exploited.
A grave consequence of the conflict is that a generation is growing up without a formal education. More than half of all school-aged Syrian children in Jordan and Lebanon are not in school. In Lebanon, it is estimated that some 200,000 school-aged Syrian refugee children could remain out of school at the end of the year.
This short video that shows refugee children’s drawings of their lives in Syria and now in Jordan’s Za’atari refugee camp.
Fractured Families
The conflict has caused 2.2 million Syrians to flee the country as refugees, with families displaced, torn apart and their members killed. Eleven million of those refugees are children.
The report reads:
The scale of the problem was highlighted during focus group discussions and interviews across Jordan and Lebanon. Forty-three of 202 children interviewed said that at least one of their immediate family members was either dead, detained or missing.
Tens of thousands of displaced children in Jordan and Lebanon are growing up without their fathers: as of 30 September 2013, there were 41,962 female-headed households in Jordan, and 36,622 in Lebanon. Not only are fathers absent; many children have no idea where they are.
In this video, 12-year-old Abdallah introduces his friends in a camp soccer team:
Scarred
This section looks at the injuries that children have suffered as a result of the conflict.
Children of all ages, from babies to teenagers, have suffered severe physical trauma and injury from sniper fire, rockets, missiles and falling debris. According to UNHCR data, in the first six months of 2013, 741 Syrian refugee children received hospital treatment for physical trauma and other injuries incurred in Syria or Lebanon including burns, bullet wounds and broken bones.
In Za’atari refugee camp, Jordan, doctors had 1,379 consultations with children for weapon or war-related injuries between 20 October 2012 and 25 October 2013. The majority, 58 per cent, were for boys.
In this video, we meet four-year-old Shahad, who has experienced a bomb attack, life-threatening injury, and flight into exile.
Isolated and insecure
This section explores the fears of Syrians living in the refugee camps.
Isolation and insecurity have become part of everyday life for many Syrian refugee children. Some prefer to be alone; others are kept at home by their parents, who fear for their safety in unfamiliar surroundings.
Tensions within and between refugee and host communities often intensify these fears. The home environment is not always free of tensions either, given the stressful conditions under which many Syrian refugees live. This can also jeopardize the safety and well-being of children.
This video shows Abdallah and his family, who regularly walk to the edge of the camp where they can pick up a Syrian phone signal. They want to know, is it safe to go home yet?
Abdallah says, “It’s very dangerous in Syria right now. I want to go home to our village, Ankhel.”
Children at Work
This section explores the reality of child labor among refugees.
Mustafa, 15, lives with his aunt, uncle and younger sister in Zarqa, Jordan. His uncle was tortured in Syria and now finds it difficult to work, as he cannot stand for more than a few minutes. Mustafa has become the family’s breadwinner and works every day in a shoe store for US$ 7 a day. He is proud of his role providing for his family but it is also a crushing burden for a child.
Children like Mustafa, some as young as seven, must work long hours for little pay, and in some cases in dangerous conditions. In such circumstances, they are also forfeiting their future by missing out on an education. The majority of working children are boys, although some girls are employed, mostly in agriculture and domestic work.
In this video, 12-year-old Abdallah describes how he puts bread on the table for his family.
The Challenge of Education
Providing education for the Syrian refugee children is an enormous challenge. 80% of Syrian refugee children in Lebanon, for example, are not in any kind of school. 20% of those in school in Lebanon drop out.
“Education is the best thing in life,” said a 12-year-old girl in Jeb Jannine, Lebanon. And yet, a large number of Syrian refugee children are not in school, despite efforts by governments and UN agencies.
During interviews and focus group discussions in Lebanon, 66 per cent of the 80 children asked about education said they were not attending school. If the situation does not improve dramatically, Syria risks ending up with an under-educated generation.
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A recent UNICEF report found that corporal punishment is widespread in Jordanian schools.23 At Za’atari camp, girls described how their teachers tell them “you have ruined your country,” cursing Syria for sending them to Jordan. Muna, 17, who dropped out of school, said, “We can’t get educated at the cost of our self-respect. We fall victim to verbal abuse.” , and are bundled together as Syrians even if we didn’t do anything wrong.”
This video shows 8-year-old Aya, who missed two years of school because of the conflict:
Born in Exile
Many of Syria’s refugee babies are not registered at birth. This creates problems, because unregistered children face discrimination and cannot access child-specific rights, including medical treatment. Unregistered children are treated as stateless and are exposed to increased levels of violence and abuse.
While the Governments of Jordan and Lebanon permit Syrian refugees to register children born in their countries, for numerous reasons many births are not registered. A major barrier in both countries is a lack of understanding of the importance of birth registration and how to go about it. When asked whether he will register his newborn, Radwan, a new father in Za’atari camp, held up his son’s birth notification document from the hospital, mistakenly proclaiming, “But this is a birth certificate!”
In Lebanon, some refugees are so overwhelmed by the complex birth registration process that they resort to risky practices to obtain a birth certificate. This includes returning to Syria in the late stages of pregnancy to give birth, or enlisting relatives in Syria to fraudulently register babies born in Lebanon as having been born in Syria.
Read the full report here.
Featured image: Everyday life for a Syrian refugee baby in a camp in Iraq
