Picture of the week: Syrian Refugees In Lebanon, by Liam Maloney
This month Syria recorded yet
another desperate statistic: UN aid
agencies reported its millionth
child refugee since the current
conflict began. Most of these
children are under 11. The UN
warns that 10 million Syrians, or
half the country's population, will
need aid by the end of the year.
Lebanon is currently home to the
highest number of Syrian refugees,
and around 300,000 of them are
children. More than 2,000 children
have crossed the border entirely
alone, having become separated
from their families.
Three-year-old Khaled, and his 70-
year-old grandfather, Abu Said, left
their home this year after two
missiles struck their neighbourhood
in quick succession. Taking just
a handful of clothes and a few
pillows, they boarded a crowded
bus to Beirut. Home since then has
been an unfurnished apartment in
a holiday town outside the city.
With their family intact and a roof
over their heads, they are luckier
than the many who are living in
expanding refugee camps. But it is
still a limbo, as they wait out the
war. A moderately well-off middle-
class family, they won't be able to
afford their costly rent for ever.
Photographer Liam Maloney spent
a month in Lebanon this summer.
As he took this picture, Abu Said
began a lamentation for home. "He
told me how Syria used to be the
pearl of the Middle East," Maloney
says. "He was deeply saddened, but
showed such dignity in the face of
everything he'd lost." His grandson
continued to shuffle a stack of dog-
eared cards, aware that his young
life had changed, but probably
not why.
