Hundreds of thousands of Syrian child refugees are enduring winter snow storms with little more than sandals and T-shirts for protection, humanitarian aid agencies have warned.
Bringing high winds, blizzards and freezing temperatures, the Alexa storm, the worst to hit the Middle East in decades, has been devastating for millions of Syrians displaced from the ongoing civil war who are now living in tents and makeshift shelters.
Children are particularly vulnerable, the sub-zero temperatures exposing them to pneumonia and a host of other deadly respiratory diseases.
“We are very concerned about the implications that the cold could have on lives of child refugees,” said Roberta Russo, a spokesman for the United Nations refugee agency.
Thirteen children whose families had become internally displaced in Syria have died already this winter as a result of the bitter temperatures, according to videos posted by local activists.
Families in the Syrian city of Homs are living without electricity, heating or adequate food, surviving by burning scraps of rubbish.
In Lebanon and Jordan, aid agencies are battling to ensure that the same fate does not befall the nearly two million registered refugees, with vulnerable children losing their lives to the cold.
“We are working with hospitals and clinics to try to ensure they are ready to face an increase in respiratory diseases,” Ms Russo said.
“In Lebanon alone we have distributed 255,000 blankets and given out coal and fuel. We are making provisions for more than 200,000 refugees to buy stoves”.
But still it is not enough. Since last winter the number of refugees fleeing into neighbouring countries has soared.
In Lebanon, the refugee population has risen from 100,000 in December 2012 to nearly one million.
Many of those families are living in one of the 1,600 ad hoc tented settlements spread across the country. Often fleeing Syria destitute, with nothing more than the clothes on their backs, they have made a home out of whatever they can find including plastic bags, wood panels or potato sacks.
These constructions do little to protect against freezing temperatures and often collapse in the snow. When it rains the mud patches of land often turn into swamp lands, the crudely dug canals spilling raw sewage.
This week in the mountainous border town of Aarsal, visited by The Sunday Telegraph, children walked barefoot or in sandals on the snowy ground and wore T-shirts or thinly knitted jumpers. Chill blains scarred their cheeks.
The UN funding appeal for dealing with the daily influx of refugees into Syria’s neighbouring country’s remains woefully unmet, with donations matching only 38 per cent of the need.
The charity Save the Children has warned that, without more funding, the humanitarian crises will worsen in coming months.
“This snow is the first sign of the treacherous winter in the region that will only increase suffering for children and their families until March,” the charity said in a recent appeal. “Between November and February, temperatures can drop as low as minus six and with over two million refugees in the region. One million of them children”.