ASIA/SYRIA - Abuse and forced marriages for refugee children

Zaatari (Agenzia Fides) - People continue to be increasingly desperate and poor. The children who fled the war in Syria with their families continue to be exploited, abused and forced into early marriages, quite unusual in the Country. About two million Syrian refugees are mainly divided between Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq. The High Commissioner for the United Nations for Refugees (UNHCR) has launched an alarm to seek the most effective security measures to prevent the young from working, dropping out of school or returning to Syria as child soldiers. The latest UNHCR estimates, 130 thousand Syrian refugees live in the Zaatari camp, in Jordan where real networks of organized crime are being built, there is total anarchy and their scarce resources are constantly being looted and destroyed. In Jordan, refugees can only live out of the camp and controlled by national authorities. Many, due to the difficult conditions in which they find themselves living in Zaatari and because of the high levels of crime that occur, prefer to escape. (AP) (Agenzia Fides 07/08/2013)