Cole writes: "The United Nations High Commission on Refugees has issued a new report on the plight of Syrian refugee children. The numbers are horrifying."

Syrian refugee children walk in the Bab al-Salam refugee camp in Syria. (photo: Jim Lopez/AFP/Getty Images)

Syrian Refugee Children By the Tragic Numbers

By Juan Cole, Informed Comment

01 December 13

he United Nations High Commission on Refugees has issued a new report on the plight of Syrian refugee children. The numbers are horrifying:

Population of Syria: 22 million

Number of Syrians made refugees in other countries by the civil war: 2.2 million

Number of Syrian refugee children: 1.1 million

Percentage of Syrian refugees who are children: 52%

Percentage of these children who are under the age of 12: 75%

Percentage of these children who said that a family member was dead or missing: 21%

Percentage of these children stuck at home for at least a week at a time: 29%

Percentage of Syrian refugee families in Jordan with at least one member working that depend in whole or part on the income generated by a child: 47%

Percentage of 270,000 school-age Syrian refugee children in Lebanon not attending school: 80%

Percentage of 187,675 school-aged Syrian refugee children in Jordan not attending school: 56%

Number of these children in Jordan and Lebanon living with no mother, father or other adult: 3,700

BBC reports:

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+52 # Kumari 2012-10-12 13:55

why does the richest nation in the world need to spend anything on food stamps? why cant americans afford to buy food?
it might be a rich country but as far as i'm concerned it's morally bankrupt

+8 # jlohman 2012-10-13 19:21

Of course free education makes sense, but there's no money in it for the politicians. They'd rather spend our tax dollars on things that draw campaign bribes (like defense weapons).

see http://MoneyedPoliticians.net

-7 # Luis Emilio 2012-10-12 14:23

In which states is the Green Party running? Maryland? Will e vote for the Green Party endanger Obama?

+5 # Muzzi 2012-10-13 11:14

Yes, it will split the vote. Obama is closer to the Green Party than the Republicans. Remember that jerk that Ronald Reagan appointed, and how he sold the environment and the animals down the polluted river?

+16 # dick 2012-10-12 14:40

ABC, NBC, CNN, & CBS do more damage than FAUX. They relentlessly portray an insane status quo as wonderful, natural.

+28 # bmiluski 2012-10-12 14:40

Is that a type (Ihope)....Pres ident Obama is pulling our troops out in 2014 NOT 2024.

+29 # cordleycoit 2012-10-12 14:53

We are scalping the children's education and heath to feed the war on terror-Drugs-an d protest to make our Masters rich.The election is a sham the winners will be the Wall Street bankers no matter who you vote for.

+11 # Muzzi 2012-10-13 00:06

Right. We should legalize a lot of the drugs to take the profit out of them. When you do that, you will lower the crime rates. One of the Mayors in Baltimore said that years ago and everyone laughed at him. They should have listened. What did prohibition do, except make money for the Mafia?

+37 # James Smith 2012-10-12 15:15

America only rates number one in military spending. That's because too many companies are making huge profits from it. Even with the billions wasted on the military budget our people are not always the best-equipped. That is a national scandal, too. Does anyone thing that the military-indust rial complex care about the lives wasted?

+6 # Regina 2012-10-13 17:57

Endless war is the Republican mantra for population control. Killing adults in battle is OK -- just don't get in the way of a fertilized human cell, or even an as-yet unfertilized one, two weeks early. They scream against contraception and enact crazy invasive laws against women's control of their own bodies. They join forces with religious interests in violation of the Constitution. The real driving fact underlying their malarkey is the profits they rake in from their military adventures -- they're so obsessed that they pass funding provisions for equipment that the military says they don't need or want. That's how they generate deficits that they then proceed to rant against. Who else demands support for two totally directly opposing sets of policies????

+2 # independentmind 2012-10-14 14:07

You notice too that not one of Mitt Romney's five sons is in the services, most of the kids that are in there came from less wealthy homes and do it to have their education paid for.

+20 # nancyw 2012-10-12 15:38

The age old dilemma of wanting to vote for what we believe in and is best for the country, but having to vote for a major party so the worse of possibilties can be prevented.

Just not right. But I don't want more destruction from a revolution... We need to think out of the box to fix this country.

+19 # worldviewer 2012-10-12 15:50

HOSTAGE IN THE WHITE HOUSE.
Does Obama really want US In Afghanistan until 2024? Or is he the hostage in the White House?
It's clear transnational business is trying to take over our government and our nation. They control the news and advertising that shapes how people think. And they would like to divide people--and the votes.
Remember what Gandhi and Martin Luther King understood--tha t each of us holds a bit of power. And if we the people join our power together we are more powerful than the 1%.

+8 # GGmaw 2012-10-13 06:10

Considering the transnational business interests working against him, Obama has done a very good job. People are fed a line of propoganda by the main media. Everything that has happened in our economy was carefully planned - read the Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein - she predicted the recession years ago.

+19 # Linwood 2012-10-12 15:55

The fundamental question is why Americans accept the status quo.
People in other western democracies would not put up with the status of working Americans. What happened to that revolutionary spirit?

+33 # Gordon K 2012-10-12 16:06

+22 # socrates2 2012-10-12 19:33

Gordon K, hear, hear!
I, too, happen to like the sly paragraph in Part 2, Chapter 9, from "THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF OLIGARCHICAL COLLECTIVISM by Emmanuel Goldstein," to wit, "And at the same time the consciousness of being at war, and therefore in danger, makes the handing-over of all power to a small caste seem the natural, unavoidable condition of survival. War, it will be seen, accomplishes the necessary destruction, but accomplishes it in a psychologically acceptable way."
Nothing like a little fear to block critical thinking and to "persuade" majorities to surrender every shred of freedom and dignity.
Viva, Orwell!

-10 # mangel 2012-10-12 16:57

I agree with you but you do not provide enough support for exiting Afghanistan. The fact that Pakistan has nuclear weapons makes it a good idea the avoid having them under the control of a pro-Taliban government. This is an issue you need to address. You don't even address the possible consequences of leaving the area. It makes me wonder if you have even thought about it.

+12 # Nell H 2012-10-12 18:04

The future of America depends on graduating more scientists in mathematical fields -- mathematicians, engineers, biologists, computer scientists. If states would support these students (who are citizens) at their top state-supported universities with full tuition, room and board as long as they make satisfactory progress we would graduate the people we need to move our great country forward.

+15 # Bev 2012-10-12 20:08

Fundamental to all these issues is true education, not schooling. We have been dumbed down! We are not taught (by design) to think outside the box. Uneducated citizens are fearful of change and under duress, look back to the past (as in Tea Partiers) instead of looking to the future and with confidence to embrace innovation.

+15 # tazia@aol.com 2012-10-12 21:49

Quoting Bev:

Fundamental to all these issues is true education, not schooling. We have been dumbed down! We are not taught (by design) to think outside the box. Uneducated citizens are fearful of change and under duress, look back to the past (as in Tea Partiers) instead of looking to the future and with confidence to embrace innovation.

I have to agree..since "no child left behend", kids are taught to take the test rather than think what the lesson is about.

+7 # ladypyrates 2012-10-12 21:01

The comments here are dead on right but it's disheartening that so many Americans have no clue as to the economic heritage given us by the founders. If nothing else, go to normeconomics@att.net and try to get an idea of the economic structure that was the basis for our incredible prosperity. When one understands how unique the American system is, it's quite easy to identify how it's been dismantled and who the culprits are that have been working for it's demise.

+2 # 4yourinformation 2012-10-13 12:49

LIKE LIKE LIKE this article!

This is what the debates should be about. Joe Biden kicked Ryan's ass but he did it inside the parameters of established and allowable topics and information.

We need a REAL genuine debate about the entire menu of important concepts and facts.

Jill Stein would make those arguments.

0 # seefeellove 2012-10-14 11:53

What is one of the dumbest and most inhumane practices? That health and education, education being part of our health, are inaccessible for many.

In a world that is smart and compassionate, education and health care would be integrated systems and free for all. Also, every single person would have the best health care and education, accommodating everyone's needs. Privatization of this single system would be illegal, forever.

Who will pay for it? The people who believe they can never have enough money.

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