Crossroads: the Syrian children’s rights and the Global Refugee Forum

Based on a World Vision’s desk analysis of child protection and education pledges by selected international actors at the 2019 Global Refugee Forum (GRF), this briefing highlights the unequivocal failure of key Syria actors to address the protection needs of Syrian children. World Vision calls on all actors and world leaders gathering at the High-Level Officials Meeting to ensure the soaring needs of Syrian children, in Syria and in host communities, are not overlooked. For the millions of Syrian refugee children, returning to their country is not an option, and will not be for years to come. Syrian children are at breaking point. The High-Level Officials Meeting must be a turning point for prioritizing and addressing their needs.

INTRODUCTION

The December 2019 GRF was hailed as an unprecedented milestone increasing support, effort and action for refugees and the communities and countries hosting them. It was the first time that some 3,000 representatives of governments, donors, and civil society came together to discuss the needs of 79.5 million forcibly displaced people, including 26 million refugees; making pledges towards building sustainable and durable solutions to support the implementation of the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR). In 2019, 25 per cent of people seeking refuge came from the Syrian Arab Republic (Syria). Two years on, the number of people fleeing conflict, violence and climate change exceeded 84 million in the first half of 2021, with the number of refugees reaching nearly 21 million women, men, girls and boys.

The GRF took place in a context of a crisis of solidarity, with a political deadlock at the root of Europe’s migration crisis, that toughened its migration policies and relied on countries outside the Union to enforce the measures to do so. In addition, Turkey had marked three years of its landmark agreement with the European Union (EU), through which the government would take steps to prevent new migratory routes from opening to limit the number of asylum seeker arrivals after hundreds of thousands of refugees and migrants had transited to reach EU soil. Furthermore, 2019 marked the grim 8th anniversary of the Syrian conflict that led to the largest refugee and displacement crisis in modern history.

When the GRF took place, the child protection needs of Syrian children were already overlooked and underfunded. “Donor fatigue” was setting in over the crisis, resulting in funding cuts for life-saving assistance for Syrian refugees despite their growing humanitarian needs, both inside and outside Syria. New refugee crisis’s were also emerging in, for example Central America, making Syria less of an acute priority for donors.

As world leaders prepare to convene for the High-Level Officials Meeting, a stock-taking event where progress and challenges on implementing commitments for refugees will be discussed and which aims to foster sustainable engagement of States and key actors in refugee crises, Syria remains the country with the largest number of internationally displaced people (6.8 million) for whom pervasive violence in their country continues to make safe returns impossible. Syrian refugees who return face grave human rights violations, including torture, arbitrary detention, kidnappings, extra-judicial killings and sexual violence. They also struggle to survive and meet their basic food and other essential needs. Syrian children experience immense trauma, with recent reports providing horrifying accounts of violations of children’s rights, that include torture, sexual violence, arbitrary detention, and unlawful killings. Furthermore, Syrian children are denied humanitarian access, that puts at risk their survival. In April 2021, the UN Secretary General reported that there had been 137 verified incidents denying humanitarian access between July 2018 and June 2020. 49 of these incidents were attacks on humanitarian facilities, personnel and transports and 42 were instances of deliberate denial of humanitarian access. The report also highlighted that schools had been targeted, hampering access to education for Syrian children, with 90 schools attacked and 30 others used by military groups in just two years.

COVID-19 has further exacerbated the needs of Syrian children, who are in greater need now than ever before, both inside Syria and in host countries. In Syria, the worst wave of COVID-19 hit the country in October 2021, and has been spreading ever since, with children whose health needs are already severely comprised due to limited access to hospitals and medical treatment, is becoming even more vulnerable.

In the face of an increasingly alarming situation for the Syrian population, there is now a resounding recognition that the only option available to refugees and internally displaced persons is to stay where they are. For Syrian refugee children, the hope of a safe haven remains a distant option, “an impossible dream” Syrian children told us, who are now at risk of facing staggering protection challenges. In summary, the needs of Syrian children now far surpass their needs of two years ago when the GRF took place.