The refuging phenomenon leaves negatives impacts on the society in general and on children in particular; as humanitarian features of the Syrian community have collapsed, it is hard to tell the depth of the suffering caused by long-term war where children are the most affected by a war made by adults with the victim being the children. It can be noticed the harvest of their present and future that is threatened by risks and fear.
Ibrahim is 13 years old from Idlib city who has gone to Turkey through a smuggler after suffering and dangerous risks that were about to claim his soul.
The little child “Ibrahim” chose to meet us after his elder brother “Ala’a” was the mediator. They are working in workshops of dressmaking in Istanbul city.
The child has moved from one sewing workshop to another searching for a simple living for his poor family. He innocently told us :” My deceased father- May Allah has mercy on him- died in the wake of a raid on the market by a helicopter. My mother suffers from a cardiac disease so she has to be on medication regularly. My younger brothers need everything… That is why I have decided to take responsibility next to my brother Ala’a who alone supports the family. No one to offer us help. He can not support the family alone in the circumstances of high prices; so I am working to help in providing the family with basic necessities”
The Syrian children have started at too early age to work on earning living becoming the breadwinner of families that lost their supporter “the father” or he becomes unable to provide his family with the basic needs without the children work; particularly speaking in the condition of few work opportunities so that refuging was a good opportunity to find a job.
Ibrahim’s condition is just like hundreds of Syrian refugees in Turkey, who war has driven them away from classroom desks to work. It is a conflict to survive where childhood has waved goodbye to joy and playing which were stolen by war. They are in continuous search for a living that becomes a lot more important than education and future.
The child proceeded his speech with us with a mocking smile on his face:” once the boss of any workshop sees me, he tells me that I am young; only to decrease my fee although the working hours are the same to all the workers including me”.
The phenomenon of working children and taking advantage of the Syrian children specially the refuging ones, is a series of a harvest of the present and the future of a war that crushes the dreams of Syria’s children turning them into workers and breadwinners despite their too young age.
The poor child added few sad words that prevented us from proceeding our speech with him.
By Bayan Alahmad
Translated by Sabah Najem
Syrian Press Center
