2016

United Nations Children Fund

Abdullah Bin Abbas

[
]
Since the outbreak of civil war in Syria, more than 12000 children have been killed in the
bloody conflict that has ravaged the country in recent years, 3200 of which have perished
this very year. In total 7.5 million children have been affected and majority of them forced
into a life of a refugee. 70000 refugee children have fled into neighboring countries in Europe
alone. Refugee children are faced with the immediate problems of medical care, shelter,
protection against the harsh winter, food and clean water etc. These innocent children
represent the future of Syria that is threatened by war and need to be protected on an
emergency basis

January 1,

REFUGEE CHILDREN:THE SCARRED FUTURE OF SYRIA ] 2016

I dont care about my future; I on y care about the future of my children. I dont
care about anything other than their l education. I had no education so it is too late
for me, but it is not too late for them. I want to encourage them to study. I want my
children to have a better life than the one I had

Background of the conflict:

Syria, a small country of population just over 22.5
million has been suffering from a civil war since 2011
between the Assad regime and rebels consisting of
civilians, tribal groups, army deserters and Islamic
Jihadists that sought to overthrow the government
due to poor economic and political performance. The
civil unrest started off as demonstrations similar to

Why the children?

Since the outbreak of the civil war, nearly 12000
Syrian children have been killed. By the end of 2013
4.3 million children were reported to be in need of
emergency assistance by UNICEF. By 2014 this
number had risen to 5.6 million. Outside the Syrian

the Arab spring in the neighbourhood of Syria, and

was escalated when some children detained for
writing anti-government graffiti were jailed and died
in captivity. The rebels have no coordination or
centralized command, making them a chaotic mass of
dangerous and armed individuals with no clear
agenda or mission. This has led to massive civilian
casualties and killing on sectarian basis by both sides.
The state media of Syria is so far silent and in denial of
the war raging within the country.

borders, there are 3.3 million refugees, 1.67 million of

which are children of all ages.1 So far there have been
limited efforts made with the focus being children.

UNICEF, Syria Crisis Dashboard, December 2014

According to statistics collected by the UN out of the

millions of refugees, 51.2 % are children under 17
years of age and of them more than 39% are below
the age of 11.

immediate action all the powers of the world,

invoking their mortality and sympathy to save the
future of Syria from a horrific and bloody fate.

All factors considered there are nearly 2 million

children that have been forced into the perilous and
uncertain life of a refugee. The children of any nation
are its future, its lifes blood, without which its
culture, its history and its people cannot survive for
long. This here is a humanitarian crisis that calls for
Drawing made by a 9 year old Syrian refugee child depicting
an attack on their bus

Scope:
The problem of refugee children is anything but
contained in any specific area. Refugees are flooding
into neighbouring countries near and far, wherever it
is deemed safe. This includes Jordan, Lebanon,
Turkey, Egypt, North Africa, the Middle East and many
countries in Europe such as Greece, France, Croatia,
and Germany.
World vision has reported that Turkey has accepted
more than 1.9 million refugees; Iraq despite its own
war is hosting 250,000. In Lebanon there are more
than 1.1 million. They have taken up residence
wherever they can, including sheds, garages, quarters,
abandoned houses and tent settlements on empty
land. Conditions there are unsanitary and crowded,
yet families struggle to pay rent for these spaces
regardless.
In Jordan there are nearly 630,000 refugees, mostly
staying in rented housing or host families. The Zaatari

camp on the northern border alone houses 80,000

while Azraq camp hosts about 23,700 refugees.
Many have relatives or family in their host countries,
but most are in a strange land with nobody expecting
them or willing to help them out. In many places the
aid efforts are negligible or severely inadequate, yet in
other areas some problems like in Europe the onset of
winters is a bigger issue compared to others, where
the weather is milder.
Therefore, considering the span of the entire refugee
exodus and the variety of problems faced by the
refugees, for the sake of this brief, the primary focus
would be countries in the immediate neighbourhood
of Syria, families with children below the age of 13
that are the most vulnerable would be given the
highest preference, namely providing them with the
most basic essentials and necessities required for
survival in the short term, following their entry into
host countries.

Why Syrians are fleeing their homes:

Violence: 320,000 people have been killed since the
civil war began, including over 12,000 children.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human
Rights, more than 1.5 million have been handicapped
or wounded in the war that has become increasingly
lethal since external powers joined the fight.

Collapsed infrastructure: In Syria, education,

healthcare, and other infrastructure is paralyzed, the
economy is in shambles and daily life has ground to a
halt with no utilities, supplies, or necessities essential
to day to day life.

Childrens safety The children, the Syrian nations

hope for a better future has suffered wounds,
witnessed brutality and violence lost family and
friends, and missed years of education. Hostile forces

The Syrian people are left with no choice but to

abandon their homes in desperation to escape the
violence. In most cases the parents choose to migrate
for the safety of their children, even if they
themselves would prefer to stay behind.
forcibly recruit children for support roles, human
shields and also as combatants.
Most parents that would prefer to stay and face the
onslaught in Syria choose to abandon their homes for
the sake of their childrens safety and undertake the
perilous journey to neighboring countries in search for
refuge.

I have nine children, aged between two and 16. One of my sons was two and
a half when the war started. Every time he could hear bombing he would get
very scared and hide under the covers. He still does this here in the camp
when he sees planes coming over, as he thinks they are coming to bomb us.

My children havent only seen bombing; they have also seen death with their
own eyes. One of my cousins has lost two children, and his mother, sister and
brother, from the bombing. This is why I left: I had to save my familys lives.

Immediate concerns:
Medical care: Physical and mental health of refugee children
Food and Water: Providing sustenance and clean water facilities
Separated families: Reuniting refugee children with their family members
Shelter: Provision of adequate shelter and housing
Winter: Protection from the onset of cold weather in winters

Health:
A large number of refugee children have escaped
from war affected areas in a scramble, without any
preparation, supplies or plan of where they are
headed. Many are injured by snipers, stray bullets,
falling debris, fires, and bomb blasts. Some have
amputated limbs and deeply infected wounds that
require
immediate
attention.
Under
the
circumstances medical care is unreachable or
inadequate, that includes special medicines and
vaccines for children that are susceptible to diseases
or have medical conditions like asthma and diabetes
etc.

stuttering are rampant and there are widespread

cases of bed wetting after children suffer from
nightmares on the rare occasion that they do fall
asleep for a short while.
Worst of all there are frequent attacks on health
facilities and health workers striving to provide
medical care to refugee children that require their
assistance on emergency basis. Dozens of hospitals
have been bombed and targeted by arson attacks,
while doctors and nurses are intimidated, injured or
gunned down in the streets or within health facilities.

In the Za'atari refugee camp Jordan there 1,379

consultations with children for firearm or war-related
injuries within just one year, the majority of which (58
%) were for boys.2
In addition to physical health the mental health of
these children is deeply affected by the war.
Experiencing the horrific war first hand, refugee
children have witnessed horrors that even adults
cannot escape unscathed. They have had their homes
destroyed, parents, friends and family members
murdered before their eyes, experienced bombings
and many have been abused or injured themselves.
Jordan's Za'atari camp, 304 children, 162 boys and
142 girls were treated for post-traumatic stress
disorder or severe emotional disorders.

Separated Families:
A large number of refugee children have been
separated from their families, many of which are
missing, dead or detained by the authorities.
According to some reports there were 2,440
unaccompanied or separated children in Lebanon and
1,320 in Jordan, 3700 of which were living without
one or both parents. Moreover 41,962 female-headed
households in Jordan, and 36,622 in Lebanon
recorded by 2013 alone. 3
This poses a grave challenge to young children that
have been parted from their families and are left with
nobody to take care of them in this hostile and
dangerous environment where even adults are
unsafe.

After escaping Syria they are settled in remote camps

in strange lands with language barriers. Most suffer
from withdrawal and severe stress and are unable to
communicate with anyone. Speech problems like
2

UNHCR Future of Syria: Scarred

On the other hand, families without father figures are

susceptible to even more dangers. There is lessened
protection and sense of security. For young children,
especially girls there exists an added threat of sexual
abuse. Fearful of their daughters being molested,
parents, especially single mothers, may opt to arrange
marriage for girls, some as young as 13 3.
3

UNCHR Future of Syria: Fractured Families

Food and water:

spoiling if not properly stored, causing further

shortages and a heightened possibility of diseases.

Worst of all, if the children somehow survive all the

other horrors, they are still faced with a severe lack of
food and clean water. Food supplies are scarce, and
there is no fuel or firewood to cook food properly. The
children suffer from malnutrition and diseases borne
out of poor diet. The facilities for food storage and
preservation are inadequate, and in many cases food
supplies and staples have a very high chance of

Furthermore in most camps there is very little clean

water and no facilities for purification and filtration,
posing the threat of water borne diseases like cholera
mostly rampant in young children and infants. Most of
the time refugees have to travel significant distances
to collect water for daily usage which has no
guarantee of being fit for human consumption.

Shelter:
Most of the refugee families cross borders with
nowhere to go to. They are sometimes allotted
meagre budgets by local governments to find housing,
yet in most cases it is extremely inadequate
considering local housing rates. Therefore families
have to depend upon the generosity of strangers and
host families for places to live. The rest have to live in
ramshackle hand built shelters that dont even keep
the elements out and have no heating.
For many families this means that everyone including
children as young as 3 have to work menial jobs in
demeaning and dangerous environments to earn a
modicum of cash so that they can afford basic
necessities or maybe humble housing to protect their
families.

Winter:
On a similar note with the issue of shelter, one of the
worst problems faced by the refugee children is the
oncoming danger of winters. The weather in these
regions turns very harsh in winters with frequent
snowfall, rain and constant wind. Under these
circumstances the refugees have no warm clothing or
protection from the elements.

In most cases these refugees have to share

accommodations in cramped quarters with large joint
families, with several people living in the same small
rooms with no privacy or adequate space. Others still
have to live in tents or caravans that are congested,
cold, damp and leak whenever it rains or snows.

They live in cold tents with no fuel or firewood to stay

warm, many roam without shoes and the children
sleep on the cold ground with nothing but pieces of
cardboard as bedding and insulation. There are
frequent fights between people over commodities
such as blankets, and parents often resort to
wrapping their children in trash bags to give them
some measure of protection from the elements.
Under such conditions the children are especially
susceptible to hypothermia, pneumonia, gangrene

January 1,

REFUGEE CHILDREN:THE SCARRED FUTURE OF SYRIA ] 2016

and other opportunistic diseases borne out of the cold

weather. Aid agencies estimate that nearly 195,000
Syrian families, most of them children will require
assistance to stay warm and dry over the winter in
Lebanon alone.4 More and more refugees are flooding
in stretching the already meagre resources thinner
and thinner, putting enormous burden over local
governments.

Current Efforts
Currently there are major aid efforts underway for the
assistance of Syrian refugees. Nations and
organizations around the world are contributing
significant amounts of finance and resources towards
the effort. However considering the sheer number of
refugees and the fact that they are spread across a
huge area and many countries has affected the
struggle to facilitate the refugees.
The United Nations High Commission for Refugees
(UNHCR) is taking an active role in the rehabilitation
of refugee children at an immediate basis, they are
distributing supplies and survival packages including
blankets, preserved food, warm clothing, sleeping
bags and raincoats etc. in collaboration with other
NGOs they have set up tents, portable toilets with
running water for drinking and sanitation purposes. In
places Wi-Fi facilities have been set up, for some this
is the only means to get in touch with their families
back home. Food vouchers are distributed by world
food Program.

severe emotional disorders or post-traumatic stress

disorder. Furthermore, UN agencies and partners
have identified care arrangements in urban areas and
camps for over 800 separated and unaccompanied
children.
The French government has agreed to provide an
additional 200 beds in heated spaces for children and
women before the year ends. Approximately 300
were voluntarily shifted to shelters situated
elsewhere in France. French authorities also provide
hot food for nearly 2000 refugees daily, yet this is still
inadequate, and people are fed by groups of
volunteers from UK and France who point out that
neither will be sufficient for the camps rapidly
expanding population. The EU has finalized an
81million $ relief package to prepare for winters.
UNHCR plans to support 229,400 vulnerable Syrians
that represent 37% of the population for winters in
Jordan, by reinforcing shelters and cash assistance.
They will also give cash to allow urban refugees to buy
blankets, heating, clothing, shoes and other items.
Women heading households will be given special
attention, as well as the elderly, disabled, children
alone, survivors of violence or torture, and people
with serious specific medical needs. 150,000 people,
including 30,000 families will receive $ 421 if they
have not already received winter support previously
and $ 276 if they have, accessible through iris-scan
enabled ATM machines.5
Despite the generous donations, massive logistical
and administrative costs corrode away a substantial
amount of the finances. Reaching refugees in the far
off and inaccessible places is also a challenge. In many
areas there are refugees that are scattered across a
large area instead of being concentrated in one place
like a camp, reaching those refugees poses a dilemma
of prioritizing and conserving resources.

UN agencies provided psychological support to

159,585 children in Lebanon, and 96,368 in Jordan. In
Zatari camp, 142 girls and 162 boys were treated for
4

World Vision, crisis in Syria Impact on children.

UNHCR, Winter of 2015-16

Recommendations
The Syrian refugee children predicament is not a localised or domestic emergency, but is a global humanitarian crisis.
The countries in the immediate locality of Syria are already overburdened and struggling with accommodating the
refugees in a short time and scarcity of resources. Therefore it is now up to the international community to intensify
their contribution towards the effort if any significant headway is to be made in this regard.
1. There is need for joint mobilization of resources at
the international level by all countries currently
uninvolved in the rehabilitation effort, catalysed
by the United Nations.

the threat of recruitment by hostile forces but

also the doctors and humanitarian workers as well
as all other logistical/facilitating personnel on
their way and in the refugee inhabited areas.

2. Most importantly, the countries in the region of

Europe and Middle East that are not directly
accommodating refugees such as Libya, Bulgaria,
Sudan, Algeria and Iran are requested to reach an
agreement to accept as many refugee families
with children less than 13 years of age.

5. Furthermore, one of the challenges in the aid

efforts is the insufficiency of funds for various
purposes, ranging from logistics to mundane
expenditures and administrative costs that eat
away a significant amount of financial aid given by
the international community, so far an appeal of
total 5 Billion $ (largest in history) has been made
for the monetary requirements of the Syrian aid
effort. Therefore it is implored upon all the
esteemed signatory countries of the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) as well as the World Bank to
provide financial assistance in order to properly
fund the mobilization of resources in an effective
and sustainable fashion.

3. Moreover there need to be donation drives at the

local level in all regional as well as distant
countries for resources such as preserved food,
shelter/tents, fuel, warm clothing, toys, and
medicines, mobilized by both the government as
well as the people themselves to collect the
necessities required to assist refugees at a faster
pace.
4. To provide necessary medical care Doctors
without Borders (Mdecins Sans Frontires) is
invited to dispatch paediatricians and child
psychologists for the aid of Syrian Refugee
children at an emergency basis. Furthermore
United Nations peace keeping forces are
requested to provide protection to not just the
refugee children against mistreatment, abuse and

6. These measures will not just ensure the

facilitation and rehabilitation of refugee children,
but the involvement of the international
community at an increased level will ensure
regional cooperation and prompter resolution of
the Syrian conflict, hopefully concluding the civil
war in the near future, returning peace to the
country so that the refugees can return back to
their homes.

Bibliography:
Anthony Sharwood. "10 Simple Points to Help You Understand the Syria Conflict." NewsComAu. N.p., 27 Aug. 2013.
Web. 16 Dec. 2015.
"The Future of Syria | Refugee Children in Crisis." The Future of Syria. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Dec. 2015
Macdowell, Andrew. "Winter Is Coming the New Crisis for Refugees in Europe." The Guardian. N.p., 2 Nov. 2015.
Web.
World Vision, Staff. "What You Need to Know: Crisis in Syria, Refugees, and the Impact on Children." World Vision.
N.p., 4 Dec. 2015. Web. 16 Dec. 2015.
Save the Children, Staff. "Children of Syria." Save the Children. N.p., 2015. Web. 16 Dec. 2015.
Martin Hartberg, and Dominic Bowen. "Failing Syria." (n.d.): n. pag. Save the Children. Mar. 2015. Web.
UNHCR Staff. "UNHCR Syria Regional Refugee Response." UNHCR Syria Regional Refugee Response. N.p., 17
Dec. 2015. Web. 03 Jan. 2016
Melissa Flemming. "Winter of 2015-16: UNHCR News. N.p., 23 Oct. 2015. Web. 03 Jan. 2016.

Abdullah Bin Abbas UNICEF special envoy.

UNICEF Regional Head quarters, Black ford, Ediburgh, Scotland
Abdullah.Bin.Abbas@UNICEF.org.uk +44-07860027540