AMMAN, Jordan — Only 13 years old, Mahmoud, a Syrian refugee, works six days a week ironing curtains in Mafraq, Jordan. His family has limited financial means, so Mahmoud and his brother must work to pay for the household’s living expenses. “I would like to go back to school to have a better future. It is very hard,” Mahmoud told Al-Monitor.

Mahmoud remembers when he used to attend school and play with his friends in Syria, but now he is socially isolated, toiling 11 hours a day at work. Although tragic, Mahmoud's story is becoming increasingly common among Syrian refugees in Jordan.

“Small Hands, Heavy Burden,” a report by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and Save the Children, highlights the glaring problem of child labor among the refugees. Nearly half of Syrian refugee families (47%) in Jordan rely on income generated by their children, with a majority of the children laboring six to seven days a week earning between $4 and $7 a day.

One of the main reasons for the child labor crisis is the inability of their parents to legally obtain work. While the Jordanian government says that the refugees are permitted to participate in the labor force, there are numerous bureaucratic hurdles that significantly reduce the number of Syrians actually eligible to work. There are more than 629,000 registered refugees in Jordan.