„According to a growing number of NGOs, they are now ‚child slaves,‘ as gone is the endearing euphemism of ‚forced labor.‘ At least 80 percent of Syrian kids in the Bekaa Valley work in the fields for around four dollars a day, and because the rent on their tents is to be paid to the same landlord, they work in a relationship akin to modern-day slavery. Five years of the UN and the Lebanese government chaperoning a policy of making refugees here pay for everything – water, electricity, rent and now residency itself – has left a community tarnished and scarred by shame. (…)
Yet being child slaves is almost a blessing compared to the fate that awaits them when they become adults in Lebanon – particularly the girls. (…) According to a recent report by the Freedom Fund, child labor, forced marriages and both adult and child prostitution are now ubiquitous symptoms of Lebanon’s ill-conceived refugee policy – and are slowly grinding 1.8 million people down. Laden with debt, they search for a solution to survive. Additional restrictions on Syrian refugees and new expenses relating to their residency have all contributed to an epidemic of biblical misery: ‚Survival sex‘ is now common jargon within UN corridors as it grapples with the phenomenon of forced prostitution and trafficking as a new challenge.“
