Nearly half of young Syrians said a close relative or friend had been killed in the civil war in the country, research from the International Committee of the Red Cross shows.
One in six said a parent was killed or seriously injured during the 10-year conflict, while 12 per cent of young Syrians had been injured and 62 per cent had been displaced from their homes, according to a survey of 1,400 Syrians aged 18 to 25 living in Germany, Lebanon and Syria.
It said 77 per cent struggled to find or afford food and basic necessities, a proportion that increased to 85 per cent among those in Syria. Nearly half had lost their income.
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Kurdish demonstrators hurl rocks at a Turkish military vehicle, during a joint Turkish-Russian patrol near the town of Al Muabbadah in the northeastern part of Hassakah in 2019. AFP -
A member of the Khabour Guards (MNK) Assyrian Syrian militia, affiliated with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), walks in the ruins of the Assyrian Church of the Virgin Mary, which was previously destroyed by ISIS. AFP -
Kamal, the father of an eight-year-old girl who was fatally wounded along with his son Hamed (sitting at left on background), cries while being treated in a local hospital in a rebel-controlled area of Aleppo in 2012. AFP -
A woman and her baby are seen through the scope of an opposition fighter sniper gun, as she flees the Saif Al Dawla neighbourhood of the Syrian northern city of Aleppo, amid heavy street fighting. AFP -
A woman cries as she looks at her house in Raqa, after a Kurdish-led force expelled the Islamic State group from the northern Syrian city in 2017. AFP -
A man carries a young girl who was injured in a reported barrel-bomb attack by government forces in Kallaseh district in the northern city of Aleppo in 2014. AFP -
A female Syrian soldier from the Republican Guard commando battalion fires a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) during clashes with rebels in the restive Jobar area, in eastern Damascus in 2015. AFP -
A woman reacts as she holds her daughter during an air strike by Syrian air force near her house in the Ahad neighbourhood of Aleppo in 2013. AFP -
A Kurdish Syrian woman walks with her child past the ruins of the town of Kobane, also known as Ain al-Arab. AFP
"This has been a decade of savage loss for all Syrians. For young people in particular, the past 10 years have been marked by loss of loved ones, loss of opportunities and loss of control over their future," said Robert Mardini, director general of the ICRC.
“The survey is a sombre snapshot of a generation who lost their adolescence and young adulthood to the conflict."
The ICRC said more than 50 per cent of Syria’s population was under 25.
More than half of the young Syrians polled said they suffered from sleep disorders in the past 12 months, nearly three quarters suffered with anxiety, more than half struggled with depression and more than two thirds felt distressed.
The survey showed that about half felt lonely and about two thirds experienced frustration.
"These young people are now facing their second decade of this agonising crisis,” said Fabrizio Carboni, ICRC regional director for the Near and Middle East.
“What is so poignant about their situation is that, having lost much of their childhood and teenage years to the violence, this generation will likely shoulder much of the responsibility and work of reconstruction.
“Their children's lives will be marked by this conflict, too."
Looking ahead, young Syrians said they most wanted employment and economic opportunities, with education, psychological support and health care also key priorities.
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TOPSHOT - A handout picture released by the official Facebook page for the Syrian Presidency on October 22, 2019, shows Syrian soldiers cheering President Bashar al-Assad during his visit to al-Habit on the southern edges of the Idlib province. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad visited government troops on the front line with jihadists in Idlib, his first visit to the northwestern province since the start of the conflict. - RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT "AFP PHOTO / Syrian Presidency Facebook page " - NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS / AFP / Syrian Presidency Facebook page / - / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT "AFP PHOTO / Syrian Presidency Facebook page " - NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS -
A Turkish gendarme retrieves the body of Syrian refugee Alan Kurdi from a beach in Turkey. Reuters -
The guided-missile destroyer 'USS Porter' conducts strikes while in the Mediterranean Sea, on April 7, 2017. AFP / US NAVY -
A handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency on October 31, 2013, shows the remains of a mortar after an alleged mortar attack by rebel fighters on the Damascus mixed Christian-Druze suburb of Jaramana. AFP / Sana -
Displaced Syrians from the south of Idlib province sit out in the open in the countryside west of the town of Dana in the north-west Syrian region on December 23, 2019. AFP -
This picture shows a general view of an overcrowded displacement camp near the village of Qah near the Turkish border in Syria's north-west Idlib province, on October 28, 2020, during the coronavirus pandemic crisis. AFP -
A picture taken on March 23, 2019, shows the last ISIS bastion in the eastern Syrian village of Baghuz after the defeat of the group. The Kurdish-led forces pronounced the end of ISIS regime on March 23, 2019, after flushing out the diehard militants from their very last bastion in eastern Syria. AFP -
Anti-government activists gesture as they gather on the streets of Daraa, 100 kilometres south of the capital Damascus, on March 23, 2011. AFP -
Syria's President Bashar Al Assad heading a cabinet meeting in the presidential palace in Damascus in 2013. Sana / AFP -
A picture taken on October 3, 2015 shows a Russian army pilot leaving the cockpit of a Russian Sukhoi Su-25 ground attack aircraft at the Hmeimim airbase in the Syrian province of Latakia. AFP -
Members of the Free Syrian Army raise their weapons during a patrol in Idlib in north-west Syria on February 18, 2012. AFP -
Syrian President Bashar Al Assad is shown shaking hands with government troops in Eastern Ghouta, in the leader's first trip to the former rebel enclave outside Damascus in years, in this handout picture released by the Syrian Presidency on March 18, 2018. Syrian Presidency Facebook page / AFP -
Militant fighters wave flags as they take part in a military parade along the streets of Syria's northern Raqqa province, on June 30, 2014. Reuters
