Syrian child refugees fleeing civil war reach 1 million, UN says
Syrian Turkmen children at a makeshift refugee camp near the Syria-Turkey border on April 23, 2013. AFPThe United Nations\’ children and refugee agencies say the number of children who have fled the violence in Syria reached one million Friday, with another two million displaced within Syrian borders.
In their statement on Friday, the UNHCR and UNICEF said that children make up half of all refugees from the Syrian conflict and that most have arrived in Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt.
But, the agencies say those refugees face the threat of child labor, early marriage, and possible sexual exploitation or human trafficking.
"This one millionth child refugee is not just another number," Anthony Lake, UNICEF Executive Director, said in the report.
"This is a real child ripped from home, maybe even from a family, facing horrors we can only begin to comprehend."
The report\’s figures show that about 740,000 Syrian child refugees are under the age of 11 and that more than 3,500 children in Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq have crossed Syria’s borders either alone or separated from their families.
The UNHCR and UNICEF also estimated that about 7,000 children have been killed during the conflict and more than two million children have been internally displaced within Syria.
Some of the humanitarian efforts carried out by the agencies include providing vaccinations against measles, psychosocial assistance, education and water supplies.
The U.N. says each of the one million children it has counted has been registered by name. It also says the agencies are working on getting birth certificates for refugees born in exile to ensure that they do not become stateless.
Syria has been embroiled in a war for more than two years, during which more than 100,000 people have been killed and millions have been displaced or become refugees in other countries, according to the United Nations.
Source: Agencies
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