ALEPPO, Syria — Child labor has become a catastrophic problem plaguing many Syrian cities and towns. Instead of enrolling in school, children are working for several reasons, mainly because the family provider was killed in the war or arrested by the regime or the Islamic State (IS). Other reasons include extreme poverty, the high cost of living and soaring levels of unemployment as a result of the country's 7-year-old civil war. Despite much talk of cease-fires and "safe zones," the war is still raging in many regions.
In areas of the Aleppo countryside liberated during Operation Euphrates Shield (August 2016-March 2017), child labor has been on the rise. Children have dropped out of school and entered the job market, many in difficult and dangerous jobs unsuitable for children.