MIGRASYL

News on migration and asylum from around the region - Nouvelles de la région sur les questions de migration et d'asile

Monday, December 17, 2012

[Jordan] IRIN - JORDAN: Syrian child refugees who work - culture or coping mechanism?


[Picture from same article - copyright irinnewsorg, 17/12/2012 - Photo Heba Aly/IRIN]

17.12.2012. Selling packets of crisps under the sun between wind-blown tents at Za’atari refugee camp in northern Jordan, Samir* recalls the days he was able to attend school back in Syria.

"I enjoyed my time when I went to school and read my textbooks,” the 12-year-old told IRIN. “[Here] I am waiting to sell everything in this box before I can get lunch," he said.

More than half the Syrian refugees in Jordan are under 18, and while the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) does not have any figures, it says it has observed a “tendency” of Syrian children working in Za’atari camp. (It will soon be conducting an assessment of child protection issues in Jordan’s host communities in part to better understand this trend.)

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