Video Report: TV3 > News > International News > Story > The lost generation of Iraqi children

Editor’s Note: As we and others have reported the Jordanians are now permitting Iraki refugee children to go to their schools free of charge. This is very generous and is imposing a huge strain on their resources - we are grateful Click the “video” to see the report.

Suheila

The lost generation of Iraqi children
Tue, 28 Aug 2007 06:16p.m.

Among the Iraqi refugees flocking into Jordan to escape the war in their homeland, are thousands of children.
They have witnessed their parents and other relatives being killed and kidnapped and have suffered severe physical and emotional violence themselves.
The children are also being denied an education, and face the prospect of becoming a lost generation.
In Amman, the capital of Jordan, the roads can be chaotic - it is said there is an accident every few seconds.
Six-year-old Gabriel was sitting beside his father when terrorists killed him at the wheel.
His mother says Gabriel was seen hitting his father, trying to wake him up, but he didn’t respond.
She says he even saw one of the killers steal his father’s wedding ring from his finger.
The experience has left him with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
But Gabriel is one of 200,000 refugee children who aid agencies claim are being denied an education, because they don’t have Jordanian residency.
It is a claim denied by Jordan’s Education Minister, who says only 400 kids are missing out.
Life as a refugee is bound to have a profound effect on these Iraqi children, and if the world doesn’t start taking notice of their plight, they are likely to become a lost generation, with no home, no country, no identity, and no future.