In 2011 the first 5,000 Syrians fled across the northern border of Lebanon
The numbers seemed massive back then. Six years on and one in four people in this tiny country are refugees.
The Lebanese Government appealed in Brussels this week for US$12billion for the next few years to cope with the strain placed on the economy and who could blame them. Lebanon, like the rest of the region continues to live on the brink.
The international community has failed to address in equal measure the needs of refugees and vulnerable host populations in most major crisis leading to inevitable tension and strife.
This has been particularly the case with Lebanon and refugees fleeing Syria. Support to the refugee population must always go hand in hand with that of the host community. With less than 10per cent of Syrian refugees living in 'camps' in the region it is inevitable that they settle in the most vulnerable parts of the neighbouring countries. Just this week roads were blocked in parts of Lebanon's Bekaa Valley as local residents protested against Syrian refugees taking local jobs.
Syria has been completely ripped apart by a vicious and complex war over the past 6 years. It has gone on in a region where we have grown accustomed to a steady rise in youth unemployment, early childhood marriage and the worst forms of child labour. The main reasons for early childhood marriage are physical security and economic livelihoods. The trends are set to spiral further as we reach close to 12 million displaced people in the region. The upheaval is staggering.
Syria had a pre war population of 23 million people. Today there are close to 5 million refugees outside of the country - 73 percent of whom are women and children.
Over 13.5million are in need of humanitarian assistance inside the country where there are 6.3 million displaced- millions of whom have been displaced several times.
Both inside Syria and despite the best efforts of the host governments in the neighbouring countries, more than 2.6million Syrian children remain outside of school.
What hope do they have in future years without a basic education? What should the 310,000 Syrian children born outside Syria do? Most have not been registered and hence have no access to a birth certificate - a simple document we take for granted at home and therefore have limited their opportunities for education or even in some cases health care, you also can’t prove your age so can be married as a child.
Even if peace were to break out tomorrow across Syria, what would its citizens return to?
The financial estimates at rebuilding Syria’s economy and infrastructure run as high as US$350 billion. The country has been devastated with 1.2million housing units destroyed. While the physical parts of Syria can hopefully one day be rebuilt, the social fabric will require more than significant funding.
Families are struggling to survive inside Syria and to make ends meet in neighbouring countries.
The average debt of a Syrian refugee household in Lebanon was recently put at US$857 - a massive amount in real terms for a family with extremely limited means. As a result, families resort to negative coping strategies, such as restricting children’s access to education, engaging in child labour or accepting early marriage.
Child labour, including its most dangerous and hazardous forms is reported in 82 percent of surveyed sub-districts in Syria, while it significantly affects both refugee and host populations in neighbouring countries. We have seen a steady but significant increase in early child marriage across parts of the Middle East, particularly amongst girls.
While not new to the region, the statistics are extremely worrying, with 85 percent of sub-districts reporting early marriage as a primary concern in Syria and an increasing number of married girls or women who were minors on their wedding day in host countries. The divorce rate in Syria itself has shot up in recent years.
In Jordan last week, I met an adolescent girl already a mother to a young boy. She had been married at the age of 13. Her parents in southern Syria have since disowned her. While child marriage is a coping mechanism for many, it is the parents as guardians who sign the contract. We have an obligation to protect children especially young girls through whatever means possible. Plan International is working with these girls, helping them with necessities and trying to get them back into to education so they have a voice and can decide their own future.
Engagement and investment with the youth in the Middle East is critical. Their economic empowerment, whether Syrian, Palestinian, Lebanese or otherwise is a necessity as is our understanding.
As their childhood continues to be stolen away from them, youth are at risk of becoming a lost generation. Today more than ever, we have a duty to help the youth shape their future and become agents of change.
Plan International Ireland is working with Syrian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt and is asking for the Irish Public to give Lost Girls of the refugee crisis a voice and sign their pledge.
Colin Lee is Middle East Programme Director for Plan International. See plan.ie/lostgirls