REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, NEW YORK -- Syrian children refugees in Lebanon and Jordan are suffering from widespread psychological distress, with many of them living alone or separated from their parents, and most receiving no education and involved in illegal labor, a new UN report showed.
The report, entitled "Future of Syria -- Refugee Children in Crisis" and released Friday, is the first in-depth survey conducted by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) over Syrian refugee children since the conflict erupted in March 2011.
According to the report, many Syrian children refugees are growing up in fractured families, and are often the households's primary breadwinners. More than 70,000 Syrian refugee families live without fathers, and over 3,700 refugee children are either unaccompanied by or separated from both parents.
"If we do not act quickly, a generation of innocents will become lasting casualties of an appalling war," said Antonio Guterres, the UN high commissioner for Refugees, in the foreword of the report.
Also in the foreword, UNHCR Special Envoy Angelina Jolie said that "the world must act to save a generation of traumatized, isolated and suffering Syrian children from catastrophe."
The ongoing conflict is leaving physical and emotional scars on the more than 1.1 million Syrian refugee children, the report said, which went in great detail about a painful life of isolation, exclusion and insecurity many refugee children have gone through.
The report also included multiple testimonies from children. Of those interviewed, 29 percent said that they leave their home once a week or less. Home is often a crammed apartment, a makeshift shelter or a tent.
In Lebanon, the first six months of 2013 saw 741 Syrian refugee children being referred to hospitals for treatment of injuries. In Jordan, more than 1,000 children at the Za'atri refugee camp have been treated for war-related injuries over the past year.
Many refugee families send their children to work to ensure survival. In both Jordan and Lebanon, the researchers found children as young as seven working long hours for little pay, sometimes in dangerous or exploitative conditions.
There are also a large number of babies born in exile without birth certificates.
Both Guterres and Jolie called on Syria's neighbors to keep their borders open, to improve their services and support the host communities. They also appealed for countries beyond Syria's borders to offer resettlement and humanitarian admission to people who continue to feel unsafe in exile and families with seriously wounded children.
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