UN: Over 1 million childdren refugees have fled Syrian violence

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syrian children refugeesGENEVA — It’s shaping up to be a lost generation: The number of child refugees fleeing Syria’s violence has now topped the 1 million mark.

The grim milestone announced Friday by U.N. officials means as many Syrian children have been uprooted from their homes or families as the number of children who live in Wales, or in Boston and Los Angeles combined, said Antonio Guterres, the head of the Office for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.

“Can you imagine Wales without children? Can you imagine Boston and Los Angeles without children?” Guterres told reporters in Geneva.

Roughly half of all the nearly 2 million registered refugees from Syria are children and 740,000 of those are under the age of 11, according to the U.N. refugee and children’s agencies.

Guterres said the horrors of war experienced by these children puts them in grave danger of becoming a “lost generation.” With emotion he recounted some of his personal visits with Syrian child refugees, including seeing one compulsively shoot a toy gun and others who drew pictures of dead children, planes with bombs and destroyed homes.

“This is totally unacceptable,” he said. “They will be paying for it the rest of their lives.”

Yoka Brandt, deputy head of the U.N. children’s agency known as UNICEF, called the exodus from Syria’s civil war “truly a children’s crisis. And the unacceptable thing is that it is children who have nothing to do with this crisis that are paying the price.”

But the children’s ordeals are not over once they escape Syria, Guterres said. Even after they cross a border to safety, they are often traumatized, depressed and in need of a reason for hope.

His agency tries to ensure that babies born in exile are given birth certificates, preventing them from becoming stateless, and that all refugee families and children live in safe shelters.

Still the threats to refugee children are rising, the agencies say, including child labor, early marriage and the potential for sexual exploitation and trafficking. More than 3,500 children in Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq have crossed Syria’s borders unaccompanied or separated from their families, according to U.N. figures.

The agencies say some 7,000 children are among the more than 100,000 killed in the unrest in Syria, which began as a protest against President Bashar Assad’s regime in March 2011 and later exploded into a civil war. Most of the refugees fleeing Syria have arrived in Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt, but U.N. officials say increasingly Syrians are also fleeing to North Africa and Europe.

The two U.N. agencies estimate that more than 2 million children also have been displaced within Syria.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Friday the real number of Syrian refugees is “well over 2 million” if unregistered refugees are counted.

“The situation in Syria continues to worsen. The humanitarian suffering is alarming. Sectarian tensions have been ignited. Regional instability is spreading,” Ban said in a speech in Seoul, South Korea.

“It is heartbreaking to see all these young people, children and women and refugees, who do not have any means, any hope for their country,” he said. “They do not know when they will be able to return to their country.”

Washington Post

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25 responses to “UN: Over 1 million childdren refugees have fled Syrian violence”

  1. 5thDrawer Avatar
    5thDrawer

    A whole country’s worth of brain-disturbed children, especially if you throw in the African ones, Malaysian ones, Pakistani&Indian ones, errr … North Korean??? etc, etc.
    Can anyone imagine a world filled with ‘Martyrs’ ?? I am sure it is what Geneva thinks of …
    But the latest reports of the Japanese radiation leaks into the oceans may save all of us from worrying about it. Are the Iranians any smarter?? Might not matter ….

    1. Jewy McJew Avatar
      Jewy McJew

      You hit the nail on the head. Iran experienced the worst recorded ‘brain-drain’ in human history when the best and brightest of the Persian community bribed their way out of that formally liberal society to migrate to the west. As a Canadian, I am not complaining. We get bright minds with little effort.

      But I wouldn’t worry so much about Japan’s Nuclear problem. So far, not a single person has died (or even gotten sick) from that meltdown. On the other hand, 10,000 people die every day from oil / gas / coal pollution. (not including explosions, mining accidents, etc..)

      1. 5thDrawer Avatar
        5thDrawer

        Well, Jewy … check out the latest reports … the ‘safety system’ they rushed to build is leaking. Apparently there was no time to weld containers together (or welders were expensive) so they just bolted them, then covered the joints in a plastic of sorts. Oops. Also the underground ‘dike’ is overflowing. Oops. And they are still 10 years from effecting the ‘cool-down’. Oops.
        Hey, I liked the idea of ‘cheaper cleaner fuel’ too … BUT !!!
        I have to say there seems to be a shortage of smart ‘techs’ everywhere.

        1. Jewy McJew Avatar
          Jewy McJew

          Still, not one person has even gotten sick!

          It reminds me of the Simpson clip:

          “But first, let’s check the death count from the killer storm…” – Kent Brockman

          “Well Kent, as of now the death count is zero, but it is ready to shoot right up.” – Meterologist

          “Oh my god. Damn you, snow!” – Kent Brockman

          We are far too terrified of radiation and not nearly afraid enough of hydrocarbons. On a kw/h basis, Nuclear is the safest form of energy man has ever known… including solar! (hard to believe but true)

          1. 5thDrawer Avatar
            5thDrawer

            Yah … flying glass from solar panels when they bomb them is very dangerous.
            Taliban want to go back to the stone age and live in caves … hmmmm … safe.
            The point is, humans do wonderful things to themselves and the planet without actually knowing absolutely everything FIRST. And then, when they do, ignore it.
            Or gamble … Hedge the bets, as it were … theoretical value VS potential destruction. Sure didn’t save much money on Chernobyl yet.
            I wait to see an electricity bill go down instead of up. And people keep making more than 2.3 babies.

          2. Jewy McJew Avatar
            Jewy McJew

            Hard to believe but more people die falling off roofs installing solar panels than die from nuclear!

          3. 5thDrawer Avatar
            5thDrawer

            Well I believe … again no-one thinks, Jewy … aside from the ones mounted on the ground … everyone just KNOWS you need an Italian or Cuban to walk around on rooves … trained roofers for a roof are best. :-)))))

        2. Jewy McJew Avatar
          Jewy McJew

          And keep in mind that was a 60 year-old reactor design, new plants are much safer.

          Hopefully we will migrate to Molten-Thorium Salt reactors. They can’t melt down (they are already melted), hard to convert to nukes, little waste, turn on / off at will, and we can build em like lego blocks and ship them in containers to the site.

          Why don’t we use Thorium now you ask? Well, all the scientist who created the nuke plants were former Uranium bomb weapons designers. They knew lots about Uranium, very little about Thorium.

          Migrating to a different fuel cycle is not cheap and the guys who run the current operation lobby against it. Thank g-d for capitalist China! That’s where the real work is being done.

          1. 5thDrawer Avatar
            5thDrawer

            As long as USA is holding all the world’s nuclear waste in those old salt mines forever, we should be OK, right? 😉

          2. Jewy McJew Avatar
            Jewy McJew

            How many people have died from those salt-mines so far? Zero?

          3. 5thDrawer Avatar
            5thDrawer

            How many died digging them? I have a feeling you are a young Canuk. I worry for the education system … it’s becoming Americanized … Do you watch ‘Glen Beck’ for ‘News’ ?? :-))))

          4. Jewy McJew Avatar
            Jewy McJew

            You show why nuclear power is such a tough sell! Even when you point out to people how much safer it is on a pound-for-pound basis, people think you are right-wing nutbar! (and no, I don’t watch Glen Beck, I’m a BBC Man)

            I don’t see this a political issue. I want an energy source that has proven to be the safest over the last 80 years and is affordable.

            Here is a death-rate graph by energy type

            https://www.google.ca/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid=Zz5e3Qc1K9sUDM&tbnid=XtUWO9SKpmA7BM:&ved=0CAUQjRw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmotherboard.vice.com%2Fblog%2Fwhats-the-deadliest-power-source&ei=gg0ZUvrkE6PO2wWIyIGoAw&bvm=bv.51156542,d.b2I&psig=AFQjCNFCSVS3pj7rB2Sqo-iIKrQeZjpFow&ust=1377459967227498

            Keep in mind this all assumes climate change is a left-wing-pinko-commie conspiracy. If it is real, then we really need nuclear! 🙂

  2. 5thDrawer Avatar
    5thDrawer

    A whole country’s worth of brain-disturbed children, especially if you throw in the African ones, Malaysian ones, Pakistani&Indian ones, errr … North Korean??? etc, etc.
    Can anyone imagine a world filled with ‘Martyrs’ ?? I am sure it is what Geneva thinks of …
    But the latest reports of the Japanese radiation leaks into the oceans may save all of us from worrying about it. Are the Iranians any smarter?? Might not matter ….

    1. Jewy McJew Avatar
      Jewy McJew

      You hit the nail on the head. Iran experienced the worst recorded ‘brain-drain’ in human history when the best and brightest of the Persian community bribed their way out of that formally liberal society to migrate to the west. As a Canadian, I am not complaining. We get bright minds with little effort.

      But I wouldn’t worry so much about Japan’s Nuclear problem. So far, not a single person has died (or even gotten sick) from that meltdown. On the other hand, 10,000 people die every day from oil / gas / coal pollution. (not including explosions, mining accidents, etc..)

      1. 5thDrawer Avatar
        5thDrawer

        Well, Jewy … check out the latest reports … the ‘safety system’ they rushed to build is leaking. Apparently there was no time to weld containers together (or welders were expensive) so they just bolted them, then covered the joints in a plastic of sorts. Oops. Also the underground ‘dike’ is overflowing. Oops. And they are still 10 years from effecting the ‘cool-down’. Oops.
        Hey, I liked the idea of ‘cheaper cleaner fuel’ too … BUT !!!
        I have to say there seems to be a shortage of smart ‘techs’ everywhere.

        1. Jewy McJew Avatar
          Jewy McJew

          Still, not one person has even gotten sick!

          It reminds me of the Simpson clip:

          “But first, let’s check the death count from the killer storm…” – Kent Brockman

          “Well Kent, as of now the death count is zero, but it is ready to shoot right up.” – Meterologist

          “Oh my god. Damn you, snow!” – Kent Brockman

          We are far too terrified of radiation and not nearly afraid enough of hydrocarbons. On a kw/h basis, Nuclear is the safest form of energy man has ever known… including solar! (hard to believe but true)

          1. 5thDrawer Avatar
            5thDrawer

            Yah … flying glass from solar panels when they bomb them is very dangerous.

          2. Jewy McJew Avatar
            Jewy McJew

            Hard to believe but more people die falling off roofs installing solar panels than die from nuclear!

          3. 5thDrawer Avatar
            5thDrawer

            Well I believe … again no-one thinks, Jewy … aside from the ones mounted on the ground … everyone just KNOWS you need an Italian or Cuban to walk around on rooves … trained roofers for a roof are best. :-)))))

        2. Jewy McJew Avatar
          Jewy McJew

          And keep in mind that was a 60 year-old reactor design, new plants are much safer.

          Hopefully we will migrate to Molten-Thorium Salt reactors. They can’t melt down (they are already melted), hard to convert to nukes, little waste, turn on / off at will, and we can build em like lego blocks and ship them in containers to the site.

          Why don’t we use Thorium now you ask? Well, all the scientist who created the nuke plants were former Uranium bomb weapons designers. They knew lots about Uranium, very little about Thorium.

          Migrating to a different fuel cycle is not cheap and the guys who run the current operation lobby against it. Thank g-d for capitalist China! That’s where the real work is being done.

          1. 5thDrawer Avatar
            5thDrawer

            As long as USA is holding all the world’s nuclear waste in those old salt mines forever, we should be OK, right? 😉

          2. Jewy McJew Avatar
            Jewy McJew

            How many people have died from those salt-mines so far? Zero?

          3. 5thDrawer Avatar
            5thDrawer

            How many died digging them? I have a feeling you are a young Canuk. I worry for the education system … it’s becoming Americanized … Do you watch ‘Glen Beck’ for ‘News’ ?? :-))))

  3. 5thDrawer Avatar
    5thDrawer

    BBC has a very good ‘interactive-sort-of’ view of Jordan’s new city – Zaatari refugee camp.
    Facts and interesting figures … and about the new refugee city going up nearby with a better layout.

  4. 5thDrawer Avatar
    5thDrawer

    BBC has a very good ‘interactive-sort-of’ view of Jordan’s new city – Zaatari refugee camp.
    Facts and interesting figures … and about the new refugee city going up nearby with a better layout.

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