Women and children living in some of the hardest-to-reach camps in north-west Syria face chronic and high levels of violence and depression, with some women forced to engage in “survival sex,” a new report has revealed. Children in so-called “widow camps” have been found to be severely neglected, abused and forced to work while mothers are at “breaking point” psychologically. More than 80% of women say they do not have adequate healthcare and 95% expressed feelings of hopelessness. About 34% of children said that they have experienced one or more forms of violence and 2% said they married young. Child labor is a big problem with 58% of boys and 49% of girls aged 11 or older forced to work.
Of the 419 people interviewed by the NGO World Vision in 28 camps, home to tens of thousands of single women, including those who are divorced or whose husbands are missing, and their children, approximately one in four women said they had witnessed sexual abuse in the camp on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. About 9% of respondents said they themselves had been sexually abused. Women are not allowed to freely leave the camps, said the NGO. Unable to seek paid employment or support their families, some find they have “no choice” but to engage in so-called survival sex with male guards and camp managers. Alexandra Matei, a lead author of the report, said: “We are seeing the world, rightly, express solidarity with the victims of the conflict in Ukraine and governments generously committed to do whatever it takes to meet the humanitarian needs there. But Syrian widows and their children deserve the same level of empathy, compassion and commitment. Their pain, their desperation, their need is no less than anyone else who is fleeing conflict.”
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