The United Nations children's agency says Syrian refugee families in Lebanon are becoming increasingly dependent on child labor to earn money for basic necessities of life.Maria Calivis, the UNICEF regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, made the remarks on Thursday in an interview published by Reuters on Friday.
"Families are poor and destitute after two and a half years of war... Often, in order to continue living here they have a lot of expenses they need to pay and the result is kids have to work," said Calivis.
"Many of these children need to get a wage to help their parents have enough to feed them," she added.
Calivis stated that of 400,000 registered Syrian refugee children, only about 100,000 go to schools.
"When we visited places inside Syria, we would see in the middle of the shelling, parents holding their kids by the hand and accompanying them to nearby schools. That is how crucial they saw their children's education," the UN official said.
"Education is a passport for their future when they've lost everything else," she noted.
Syria has been gripped by deadly unrest since 2011. According to reports, the Western powers and their regional allies -- especially Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey -- are supporting the militants operating inside Syria.
In a recent statement, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said the number of Syrian refugees, who have fled the countrys 29-month-long conflict, reached two million.
The UN refugee agency also said some 4.2 million people have also been displaced inside Syria since the beginning of the conflict in the Arab country.
By Press TV
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