UN report laments dire state of Syria’s children

A new United Nations report claims that hundreds of thousands of Syrian children have been traumatized by war.

"The Future of Syria: Refugee children in crisis" report from UNHCR says that physical and psychological wounds, and a lack of schooling, have taken a massive toll on young Syrians living outside their country.

They found that 70,000 Syrian refugee children were fatherless and more than 3,700 child refugees had been separated from both their mothers and fathers.

More than one million Syrian children have been made refugees by the war, many of them living in camps in neighboring countries like Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan.

Some of the children in these camps have become the sole breadwinners in their families, according to the report.

In the camps, Syrian children have shown signs of trauma, including constant crying, bedwetting, speech difficulties and flashbacks of violence.

Many children have also been physically wounded in war. About 750 Syrian children have been treated in Lebanese hospitals this year alone.

About 1,000 have been treated in Jordan with injuries sustained in the conflict.

The report estimates that 300,000 Syrian children in Lebanon and Jordan will be without school.

"In terms of numbers, we are talking about a crisis of major proportions. Over 1 million children, it's the sheer magnitude of it. One striking feature is the impact on the psychosocial wellbeing of children. They are severely traumatised children coping with things adults would find difficult to cope with," said Volker Turk, director of international protection at UNHCR.

The report took four months to write and consisted of interviewing children and workers supporting them, primarily in Lebanon and Jordan.

As many as 100,000 Syrians have died in the conflict.