Syrian war is making casualties of ‘a generation of innocents,’ warns UN

Al Jazeera America reports: School-age refugees who have fled Syria’s civil war to neighboring countries are cut off from education and are increasingly becoming primary providers for families who lack resources for basic survival, the United Nations said Friday.

A report published by the U.N.’s refugee agency (UNHCR) says children represent 52 percent of the total Syrian refugee population, which now exceeds 2.2 million. Seventy-five percent of those children are under the age of 12.

“If we do not act quickly, a generation of innocents will become lasting casualties of an appalling war,” Antonio Guterres, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, said in launching the report.

The UNHCR report found a majority of the refugee children live in Syria’s neighboring countries, with Jordan and Lebanon combined hosting more than 60 percent. As of the end of October, 291,238 Syrian refugee children were living in Jordan and 385,007 in Lebanon.

“This is the moment for the international community to fully understand that the support provided to the countries of the region needs to be strongly enhanced, needs to be really massive, because there is a risk for the asylum space if that doesn’t happen,” Guterres added. [Continue reading…]

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One thought on “Syrian war is making casualties of ‘a generation of innocents,’ warns UN

  1. Norman

    Here’s another plus for war, as the warmongers like it. It’s always the children, the innocent ones who pay the price in these conflicts, while those who demand war, sit in their comfy chairs thousands of miles away pontificating that they only want peace to rain down on the heads of which ever country is being destroyed in the name os said peace.

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