Report sheds light on scale of exploitation faced by Syrian refugee children in Lebanon, with tens of thousands forced to sleep rough and thousands more prey to abuse





The 12-year-old boy, who calls himself Mohamed, stared out of the shelter’s window, his words as sparse as his frame, and his eyes melancholy as he described the beatings.

A hammer was the weapon of choice of his former boss at the car repair shop, where he worked 14-hour days after first arriving in Lebanon two years ago from neighbouring Aleppo, to help provide for his family of 10.

“I don’t get tired,” he said defiantly when asked how he endured the long hours, which earned him just $100 (£65) a month, a chunk of which was sometimes taken by a co-worker who beat him.

Mohamed is now in a shelter school in Beirut that doubles as a vocational training centre for Syrian and Lebanese children often forced by circumstance into the harsh and exploitative world of child labour.

Children are not only the face of the catastrophic refugee crisis that has spilled out from the Syrian civil war. Overwhelmingly, they are also its main victims, with tens of thousands forced to sleep rough, thousands more prey to exploitation – even sexual abuse – and an entire generation displaced by war, and ravaged by deprivation. The effects will take decades to undo.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Animated films based on experiences of street-based children. Credit: Home of Hope, Save the Children International, Unicef Lebanon, and ILO Regional Office

Over the past week, the Guardian has got to know the plight of several children, most of whom have lived on the streets of Beirut after being forced out of Syria by war, or out of their homes in Lebanon, through family crisis, or loss.

The children have told their stories ahead a report released on Monday which sheds light on the scale of exploitation now being faced faced by both Syrian and Lebanese children.

Commissioned by the International Labour Organisation, Unicef and Save the Children, the report estimates that over 1,500 children work in the streets in Lebanon, the majority of them being highly vulnerable to severe exploitation.

Thirteen-year-old Hassan fled Deraa province in Syria early in the war and now lives under a bridge in a poor area of the capital with his uncle. After shining shoes in central Beirut, he returns to the hovel with his uncle, who sleeps alongside him. He has no other protection.

“I live on the street. We don’t have a house because we don’t have the money to pay rent,” said Hassan, adding that they sometimes suffered beatings and had their money taken by local thugs, and experienced racism directed towards Syrians.

He gives all his money to his uncle, who supposedly sends it back to his family, still in Syria. He then gets an allowance that ranges from $3 to $7 a day.

Hassan appeared frustrated when asked if he would rather be at school.

“If we go to school, who would help our families?” he asked.

There are over a million Syrian refugees in Lebanon, half of whom are under the age of 18.

Many of the children both in Lebanon and its mountainous border regions have little opportunity for schooling. Five out of six are out of school, according to a survey in September last year by Save the Children.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Young Syrian refugees look for shoe-shining clients in Beirut, Lebanon. Photograph: Sam Tarling

The crisis has led to fears that Syria will have a “lost generation” of schoolchildren, some of whom have been out of school since the early months of the uprising which began in 2011.

All the children and teenagers interviewed by the Guardian – Syrian and Lebanese – reported working long hours, often 12 or more per day, for meagre pay that amounts to about $35 per week. Most reported being either physically or verbally abused in the course of their work.

Refugee relief efforts in the region are chronically underfunded, and the UN high commissioner for refugees has been forced to cut aid from all but the neediest of refugees due to insufficient funds.

Many in the countryside send their children to work in the fields for hours, often earning as little as $8 a day rather than going to school. Those in the city are forced to beg or wander the city’s streets selling wares and shining shoes. Others find menial jobs at supermarkets, restaurants or auto-repair shops.

The study by the international organisations looked at the phenomenon termed “street-based children”, which included both Syrian refugees and Lebanese children who dropped out of school or were forced to work at an early age. The researchers looked at 700 child labourers in the country.

The majority were either illiterate or have never been to school, and work between four and 16 hours a day. More than half work every day of the week.

A third were either arrested or pursued by law enforcement, while 6% reported having been victims of sexual assault or rape in the workplace. While on average the children earned less than $12 a day, those who turned to prostitution were among the highest earners, at about $36 a day.

Lebanon has pledged to eliminate the “worst forms” of child labour by 2016, but with its government paralysed by the regional crisis, and enforcement of anti-exploitation laws historically poor across the country, such a goal appears out of reach.

Though Syrians now make up one out of five residents in the country, the Lebanese government has refused to build refugee camps to house the displaced, fearful that the country’s delicate sectarian balance would be altered if Sunni Syrian refugees were allowed to build permanent dwellings like the Palestinians who came before them.

Anthony MacDonald, chief of child protection at Unicef Lebanon, said: “When you talk about a child who is engaged in child labour, usually child labour is not the only issue they face … Behind the label of child labour they face multiple protection issues. They could be a girl involved in early marriage, it could be sexual exploitation, very often the people you see on the street are part of a trafficking ring. It’s usually a symptom, an indicator.

“We can’t provide quick fixes for long-term trauma. You need sustained support for these children. If that doesn’t happen we will lose a generation of men and boys.

“If you don’t address the issue of those engaging in this form of labour, including forms of armed violence, you not only have a lost generation, but the issue of peace and security in Lebanon and the region is also affected.

“We will find it more difficult to establish peace in the region.”

