Welcoming Syrian refugees into Ireland is a good start

Welcoming Syrian refugees into Ireland is a good start, but we must do more to help children trapped in Syria and on its borders, writes Helen Keogh, Chief Executive of World Vision Ireland.

It was the image of a child who finally forced the world to pay attention to a crisis that has been spiraling out of control for the past five years. And it is children who remain the main victims of the war in Syria. 

For almost five years NGOs such as World Vision has been pleading for urgent action for children lost to the war.  While the world has opened its eyes to the desperate plight of those who have escaped Syria we cannot forget the terror faced by children on a daily basis within the war-torn country.  At the beginning of last year World Vision launched a report called Stand with Me: Ending the War on Syria’s Children which found that in some cases children are being specifically targeted in massacres and executions. 

Since the conflict began in 2011, reported beatings and shootings of children quickly developed into openly targeted direct attacks. Children have been shot dead at close range, while some younger than 10 years old have been targeted by snipers. Execution-style deaths have been reported, in which children have been shot or had their throats cut. Adolescents have been among the largest groups of children affected, but shootings of children as young as two years old have been reported.

While we can only welcome the Government’s announcement to resettle 4,000 refugees, we must not think that our job here is done.  We have to examine the root cause to this refugee crisis and at least make a concerted effort to fix the problem at its source - War. The international community has failed in making any sort of a dedicated attempt to bring peace to Syria.  Money has been pledged but not given. Attempts at peace talks such as Geneva II, which took place over a year and a half ago, have completely failed and very little effort has been made since.

It is not enough to house a few thousand refugees in Ireland; we must also do everything in our power to support those so desperately in need on Syria’s borders. The majority of Syrian refugees have been living in squalid conditions in countries such as Lebanon and Jordan for years now. They have run out of any savings they may have had and many are now in huge debt to survive. In July this year the World Food Programme was forced to cut food assistance to just over €12 per person per month. The price of food in is similar to what it is in Ireland. Families just cannot survive, so many children have been sent to work and young girls have been forced into early marriage. 

World Vision has been working in Syria and in refugee host communities such as Jordan and Lebanon since 2011 where we deliver aid and also try to give the children who the world has seem to have forgotten a voice.  A ten year old girl called Haya, who live sin Jordan, gave us a letter she wrote to the world. It said