Ammon News -

On International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression, refugee women shared their children’s experiences and vulnerabilities throughout their migration journey.

“It is a sad reality that in situations where armed conflict breaks out it is the most vulnerable members of societies — namely children — who are most affected by the consequences,” according to the UN.

Annually marked on June 4, the day seeks to acknowledge the pain suffered by children throughout the world who are the victims of physical, mental and emotional abuse, underlining the UN's commitment to protecting children’s’ rights.

The six most common violations against children include: Armed child recruitment, killing, sexual violence, abduction, attacks on schools and hospitals, and denial of humanitarian access, the UN website showed.

On Saturday, Fatima Ali, a Syrian refugee and a mother of six children, told The Jordan Times that her children’s lives have “turned upside down” since they left Syria. She said there have been many challenges, including limited access to healthcare and services to help meet their basic needs.

Ali said that her husband and his family decided to have her eldest daughter married last year at 15, but she was able to prevent this from happening.

She said that early child marriage is one of the negative coping mechanisms poverty and harsh living conditions forces many refugee families to resort to.

Um Mohammad, also a refugee from Syria, told The Jordan Times that many refugee children live in desperate conditions and noted that her son had been involved in “forced labour”.

She said that for many years her son has experienced depression and at times been discriminated against.

A total of 760,000 refugees are currently registered with the UNHCR in Jordan, which constitutes the second largest proportion of refugees per capita in the world.

The UNHCR added that children made up almost half of the world’s refugees in 2020.

Recent data released by the UNHCR revealed that 80 per cent of refugee children have attended school in 2021, despite the challenges of remote education, and that child labour remains minimal.

 

*UN