One millionth child flees Syria: UN

The United Nations says the one millionth child has fled Syria's borders. Figures gathered by the UN show that children make up more than half of all Syrian refugees.

syria_refugee_children_getty.jpg

Syrian refugees. (Getty)

The one millionth child has fled Syria’s borders, according to the United Nations.

Figures gathered by UNICEF and UNHCR show that children make up more than half of all Syrian refugees.

In Jordan's fourth largest city, children take part in classroom activities like reading and writing. But this is not a typical city.

It’s Zaatari, the world’s second largest refugee camp and home to more than 123,000 Syrian refugees.  Half of those housed at Zaatari are children.

“The Syria crisis is the most important crisis that the world is dealing with for children today, and continues to be so,” says Ted Chaiban, the UNICEF director of Emergency Programs.

“There are over four million children that are affected in the sub-region”.

Figures gathered by the UN show one million children have fled Syria's borders since fighting broke out almost two and a half years ago. Three quarters of them are under 11 years old.

For eight-year-old Aya, a Syrian refugee, leaving was unavoidable.

“They began to bomb our house. We couldn't stay there any longer, we were crying a lot,” she says.

But she is hopeful she will return one day. Aya is now at school in a camp in Lebanon where she hopes she will be a doctor.

“I want to be a doctor so I can help children,” she says. “If they come to see me and they don’t have any money, I will give them medicine, a prescription and an injection, so they can get better.”

Records kept by refugee camps across the region show more than 3,000 children have crossed Syria's borders unaccompanied or separated from their families.

Others who do come with families or guardians walk long distances to get to safety.

The head of the UNHCR in Jordan, Andrew Harper, says the refugee children can walk for days before reaching a border crossing.

“I have spoken to families who have walked from Damascus to Jordan, a journey which takes 10 days,” he says.

“They walk through fields, hide in abandoned buildings, try and hide however they can and then come across the border.”

Inside refugee camps across the region, there are attempts to restore normality.

But there are fears these children could become Syria's lost generation suffering from the trauma of war.
 
The UN says more than 150,000 children have undergone psycho-social assistance.

“We also have to take into account that these children have seen horrific scenes inside Syria,” Andrew Harper says.

“Often their homes have been bombed, they’ve lost family members and most importantly, they don't know what's happening next. They do not how long they will be the camp.”

He says the families in the camps just want to return and resume life.

But fears of chemical attacks and ongoing fighting mean more refugees will be leaving.

“There's not one indicator that would give us any sign of hope in relation to Syria, and the refugees reflect that as well,” he says.

“We're going to see hundreds of thousands more Syrians fleeing in the next months as the fighting intensifies in homes.”

In two-and-a-half years of war, more than 1.9 million Syrians have left the country.

That's almost as high as the combined populations of South Australia and the Australian Capital Territory.

You can donate to UNICEF here or UNHCR here.


Share

4 min read

Published

Updated

By Shanthi Benjamin

Source: SBS



Share this with family and friends


Get SBS News daily and direct to your Inbox

Sign up now for the latest news from Australia and around the world direct to your inbox.

By subscribing, you agree to SBS’s terms of service and privacy policy including receiving email updates from SBS.

Download our apps
SBS News
SBS Audio
SBS On Demand

Listen to our podcasts
An overview of the day's top stories from SBS News
Interviews and feature reports from SBS News
Your daily ten minute finance and business news wrap with SBS Finance Editor Ricardo Gonçalves.
A daily five minute news wrap for English learners and people with disability
Get the latest with our News podcasts on your favourite podcast apps.

Watch on SBS
SBS World News

SBS World News

Take a global view with Australia's most comprehensive world news service
Watch the latest news videos from Australia and across the world