Children bear brunt of Syria fighting as refugee numbers top one million

As the number of refugees fleeing Syria tops one million, children are bearing the brunt as the situation worsens, warns World Vision.

Almost two years since the start of conflict in Syria, and the numbers of refugees fleeing the country has reached one million, much sooner than anyone predicted.

Justin Byworth, Chief Executive of World Vision UK, who recently returned from the region, said: “Half of those million refugees who fled Syria are children – and each has their own story of a life torn apart by war.

“In Lebanon recently, I met a family with a three-year-old girl who had crossed the border with nothing and was sleeping rough on a freezing park bench, and a mother who comforted her two-year-old by telling her the bombs were 'balloons popping'. Many are resorting to drastic measures to cope, including some mothers who are even considering marrying off their daughters to ensure their children's own survival.

“We’re working to give families the essential items they need, and children some kind of normality with safe places to play and come to terms with what has happened – but lives have been shattered and will take years to rebuild.”
For instance, in a report published by World Vision today we reveal the case of a mother called Amira facing the prospect of marrying off her 12-year-old daughter due to the conflict in Syria. The war forced her to flee to Lebanon where they are now renting a home for £65 a month, which they cannot afford.

Amira, a mother of five, told World Vision that 12-year-old Sheereen "would be our survival". Amira is seven months pregnant and with another mouth to soon feed, she is running out of options.
David Thomson, World Vision’s Director of Policy, added: “Marriage in childhood is a violation of children’s rights and a brutal curtailment of childhood. It is a disturbing fact that one-in-three girls living in the least developed countries marry before their eighteenth birthday. Most of the 25 countries with the highest rates of early marriage are considered fragile states or at high risk of natural disaster.

 “Natural disasters also have a huge impact on whether a child marries or not. According to data gathered in Bangladesh, 62 per cent of the total number of children under 18 who married in the last five years were married in the first 12 months following Cyclone Sidr in 2007.

“Parents feel compelled to marry off their children at a very early age to keep them safe from rape and hunger during humanitarian crises. People should never be forced to have to make such an appalling choice.”

In Lebanon, refugees are living in makeshift shelters, tents, rented accommodation they can’t afford, or with host families. World Vision is reaching more than 60,000 refugees, both registered and those who are too scared to, with food, heating, and basic household supplies.

Children need peace, stability, normality and support to avoid the long-term danger of trauma, and to help them recover.”
Refugees and host communities are seeing the health, welfare and education services they rely on become overwhelmed to the point of failure.

Unfortunately, the funding for this crisis is still fairly woeful. The knock-on effect is that UN and others, including aid agencies, are unable to do our jobs of making sure resources are most effectively used and no one is missed out. Countries surrounding Syria are playing their part – donor governments must do the same.

The future of the more than half a million children who have left Syria, and the countless more still inside the country, depends on how well the international humanitarian response is funded, organised, brought to them and continued for as long as it is needed.