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Syria's conflict is creating a generation of damaged children, the United Nations warned
Friday in a report on the plight of more than a million children who are refugees in neighboring
countries, many of them deprived of access to education and of any semblance of a normal
family life or childhood.
The agency has registered more than 1.1 million children among the total of 2.2 million refugees,
presenting a crisis on a scale unseen since Rwanda two decades ago, Volker Türk, the
agency's director of international protection, told reporters in Geneva. Of these refugee
children, more than 385,000 were in Lebanon and 290,000 were in Jordan, he said.
The conflict had caused children of all ages "to suffer immensely, both physically and
psychologically, Children have been wounded or killed by sniper fire, rockets, missiles
and falling debris. They have experienced firsthand conflict, destruction and violence."
The report came less than a week after a study of Syrian casualty data released by a British
research institute estimated that more than 11,470 Syrian children under the age of 17
had died in the conflict.
Around 100,000 Syrians every month are still fleeing across borders to escape the conflict,
creating a huge strain on health, education and water resources.
Tens of thousands of children are growing up without their fathers, who may have been
killed or detained or who are missing, a situation that increases pressure on male children to
work, the report said, based on interviews with 81 children in Lebanon and Jordan and
group discussions with 121 more. Many families, fearful for the safety of their children,
rarely let them out of their homes.