Child Labor: A Hidden Atrocity of the Syrian Crisis

[unhappycamper]

http://www.juancole.com/2015/07/hidden-atrocity-crisis.html

Child Labor: A Hidden Atrocity of the Syrian Crisis
By contributors | Jul. 6, 2015
By Kanya D’Almeida

UNITED NATIONS, Jul 3 2015 (IPS) – In a conflict that has claimed over 220,000 lives and injured a further 840,000 people as of January 2015, it is sometimes hard to see beyond the death toll.

What started as a confrontation between pro-democracy activists and the entrenched dictatorship of President Bashar al-Assad in 2011, Syria’s civil war is today one of the world’s most bitter conflicts, involving over four separate armed groups and touching numerous other countries in the region.

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With millions on the brink of starvation and displaced Syrians now representing the largest refugee population in the world, after Palestinians, scores of lesser-known war-related atrocities are jostling for space in the headlines.

On Jul. 2, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and Save the Children released a joint report highlighting one of the hidden impacts of the Syrian crisis – a rise in child labour throughout the region.