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A Glimpse Of Syria's 1 Million Child Refugees

By Greg Myre
Published August 23, 2013 at 12:36 PM EDT
Syrian-Kurdish children sit on a bed at the Quru Gusik refugee camp in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq, on Aug. 22. Faced with brutal violence and soaring prices, thousands of Syrian Kurds have poured into Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region. UNICEF has reported that over one million Syrian children live as refugees in other countries.
1 of 9  — Syrian-Kurdish children sit on a bed at the Quru Gusik refugee camp in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq, on Aug. 22. Faced with brutal violence and soaring prices, thousands of Syrian Kurds have poured into Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region. UNICEF has reported that over one million Syrian children live as refugees in other countries.
Syrian-Kurdish children sit on a bed at the Quru Gusik refugee camp in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq, on Aug. 22. Faced with brutal violence and soaring prices, thousands of Syrian Kurds have poured into Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region. UNICEF has reported that over one million Syrian children live as refugees in other countries.
Syrian refugee children attend a class in Chekka, Lebanon on July 29. An estimated one million Syrians, including refugees, laborers and their families, currently live in Lebanon, twice the number that were in the country in April.
2 of 9  — Syrian refugee children attend a class in Chekka, Lebanon on July 29. An estimated one million Syrians, including refugees, laborers and their families, currently live in Lebanon, twice the number that were in the country in April.
Syrian refugee children attend a class in Chekka, Lebanon on July 29. An estimated one million Syrians, including refugees, laborers and their families, currently live in Lebanon, twice the number that were in the country in April.
Children play at a refugee camp in Terbol, Lebanon in July 31. At a camp in Terbol, refugees beseech visiting aid workers to improve sanitation and other services at the site. Formerly a settlement for migrant workers on privately owned land, the site's unplanned growth in recent months has strained already limited resources.
3 of 9  — Children play at a refugee camp in Terbol, Lebanon in July 31. At a camp in Terbol, refugees beseech visiting aid workers to improve sanitation and other services at the site. Formerly a settlement for migrant workers on privately owned land, the site's unplanned growth in recent months has strained already limited resources.
Children play at a refugee camp in Terbol, Lebanon in July 31. At a camp in Terbol, refugees beseech visiting aid workers to improve sanitation and other services at the site. Formerly a settlement for migrant workers on privately owned land, the site's unplanned growth in recent months has strained already limited resources.
A girl carries a baby as she walks past a tent at an improvised camp in Kfar Zabad, Lebanon on July 31. About 60 tents made of wooden planks and worn fabric are packed onto a plot of cracked land turned to mud by streams of waste water.
4 of 9  — A girl carries a baby as she walks past a tent at an improvised camp in Kfar Zabad, Lebanon on July 31. About 60 tents made of wooden planks and worn fabric are packed onto a plot of cracked land turned to mud by streams of waste water.
A girl carries a baby as she walks past a tent at an improvised camp in Kfar Zabad, Lebanon on July 31. About 60 tents made of wooden planks and worn fabric are packed onto a plot of cracked land turned to mud by streams of waste water.
A Syrian family walks past a blast site in the town of Reyhanli, Turkey near the Syrian border on May 12. Twin car bombs killed 43 people and wounded many more in a Turkish town near the Syrian border and the government said it suspected Syrian involvement. The bombing increased fears that Syria's civil war was dragging in neighboring countries.
5 of 9  — A Syrian family walks past a blast site in the town of Reyhanli, Turkey near the Syrian border on May 12. Twin car bombs killed 43 people and wounded many more in a Turkish town near the Syrian border and the government said it suspected Syrian involvement. The bombing increased fears that Syria's civil war was dragging in neighboring countries.
A Syrian family walks past a blast site in the town of Reyhanli, Turkey near the Syrian border on May 12. Twin car bombs killed 43 people and wounded many more in a Turkish town near the Syrian border and the government said it suspected Syrian involvement. The bombing increased fears that Syria's civil war was dragging in neighboring countries.
A woman carries her child to escape from the burnt tents at Zattari Syrian refugee camp near Mafraq, Syria, on March 8. A heavy fire broke out and consumed a large number of tents. UNICEF reports that more than two million Syrian children are internally displaced refugees within Syria.
6 of 9  — A woman carries her child to escape from the burnt tents at Zattari Syrian refugee camp near Mafraq, Syria, on March 8. A heavy fire broke out and consumed a large number of tents. UNICEF reports that more than two million Syrian children are internally displaced refugees within Syria.
A woman carries her child to escape from the burnt tents at Zattari Syrian refugee camp near Mafraq, Syria, on March 8. A heavy fire broke out and consumed a large number of tents. UNICEF reports that more than two million Syrian children are internally displaced refugees within Syria.
Girls carry over their heads buckets of water as they walk at Atmeh refugee camp, in the northern Syrian province of Idlib on Feb. 19. This rebel-controlled camp only yards from the border with Turkey houses some 16,000 people displaced by the civil war.
7 of 9  — Girls carry over their heads buckets of water as they walk at Atmeh refugee camp, in the northern Syrian province of Idlib on Feb. 19. This rebel-controlled camp only yards from the border with Turkey houses some 16,000 people displaced by the civil war.
Girls carry over their heads buckets of water as they walk at Atmeh refugee camp, in the northern Syrian province of Idlib on Feb. 19. This rebel-controlled camp only yards from the border with Turkey houses some 16,000 people displaced by the civil war.
A Syrian girl looks through the window of a bus where she has lived with her family for the past eight months at a refugee camp in Bab al-Salam, Syria near the Turkish border, on Feb. 28.
8 of 9  — A Syrian girl looks through the window of a bus where she has lived with her family for the past eight months at a refugee camp in Bab al-Salam, Syria near the Turkish border, on Feb. 28.
A Syrian girl looks through the window of a bus where she has lived with her family for the past eight months at a refugee camp in Bab al-Salam, Syria near the Turkish border, on Feb. 28.
A refugee camp is set up near the Turkish border in Azaz, Syria on Dec. 9, 2012.
9 of 9  — A refugee camp is set up near the Turkish border in Azaz, Syria on Dec. 9, 2012.
A refugee camp is set up near the Turkish border in Azaz, Syria on Dec. 9, 2012.

Syria's war has reached another grim milestone: Two United Nations agencies announced Friday that 1 million Syrian children have now fled their homeland in an uprising and civil war that's well into its third year.

The accompanying slide show provides a glimpse of some of these children and the conditions they are living in.

The numbers continue to grow rapidly. The Zaatari Refugee Camp in Jordan, for example, was established just a year ago in the desert near the Syrian border and now has some 120,000 refugees living there.

The children are among some 1.75 million Syrians who have left the country since the spring of 2011, with most going to the neighboring states that include Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon, according to UNICEF and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Inside Syria, an additional 2 million children have been displaced, according to UNICEF.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Greg Myre
Greg Myre is a national security correspondent with a focus on the intelligence community, a position that follows his many years as a foreign correspondent covering conflicts around the globe.
See stories by Greg Myre