Childhood lost: Syrian refugees in focus

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  Abdullah, 5, in Belgrade, Serbia: For the last two days Abdullah has been sleeping outside of the central railway station in the Serbian capital. The young Syrian witnessed the killing of his sister in their Daraa home and is still in shock. He has nightmares every night, his mother says. Abdullah also has a blood disease, but his mother does not have any money to buy medicine for the boy.

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  Abdul Karim, 17, in Athens, Greece: Abdul Karim Addo has no money after buying a ferry ticket to Athens with his last euros. Now he spends the night in Omonoia square, where hundreds of refugees arrive every day. He is able to borrow a phone and call home to speak to his mother in Syria, but he cannot tell her how bad things are. “She cries and is scared for my sake and I don’t want to worry her more.” He unfolds his blanket and curls up in the foetal position. “I dream of two things: to sleep in a bed again and to hug my younger sister.”

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  Amir, 20 months, in Zahle, Lebanon: Amir was born a refugee. His mother believes her son was traumatised in the womb. “Amir has never spoken a single word,” says Shahana, 32. In the plastic tent where the family now lives, Amir has no toys but plays with whatever he can find on the ground. “He laughs a lot, even though he doesn’t talk,” says Shahana.

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  Maram, 8, in Amman, Jordan: Maram had just come home from school when the rocket hit her house. A piece of the roof landed on top of her. Her mother took her to a field hospital and from there she was flown across the border to Jordan. The injury caused a brain haemorrhage and for 11 days Maram was in a coma. She is now conscious but has a broken jaw and cannot speak.

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  Gulistan, 6, sleeping in Suruc, Turkey: Six-year-old Gulistan prefers to shut her eyes and just pretend to sleep, because every time she really falls asleep, the nightmares start. “I don’t want to sleep here. I want to sleep at home, she says”. She misses the pillow she had in Kobani. Sometimes she lies against her mother and uses her as a pillow.

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  Lamar, 5, in Horgos, Serbia: The dolls, toy train and ball are at home in Baghdad, Iraq. Lamar often talks of them when home is mentioned. The bomb changed everything. The family were on their way to buy food when it dropped close to their house. It is not possible to live there any more, says Lamar’s grandmother. After two attempts to cross the sea from Turkey in a rubber boat they succeeded in reaching Hungary’s closed border. Now Lamar sleeps on a blanket in the forest, scared, frozen and sad.

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  Shehd, 7, sleeping on the ground in Hungary: Shehd loves to draw, but more recently all of her drawings have the same theme: weapons. “She saw them all the time, they are everywhere”, explains her mother as the little girl sleeps on the ground alongside Hungary’s closed border. Now she does not draw at all. The family brought neither paper nor crayons with them on their flight. he family has had difficulty finding food during their wandering. Some days they make do with apples picked from trees along the road. If the family had known how hard the journey would be they would have chosen to stay in Syria despite the risk to their lives, they say.

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  Fatima, 9, in Norberg, Sweden: Every night Fatima dreams she is falling from a ship. She fled from Idlib, Syria, with her family. After two years in a Lebanese refugee camp they made it to Libya where they boarded an overcrowded boat. On the deck a woman gave birth to a stillborn baby that was thrown overboard. Fatima saw everything.

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  Tamam, 5, in Azraq, Jordan: Tamam is scared of her pillow and cries at night. The air raids on her hometown of Homs usually took place at night, and although she has been sleeping away from home for nearly two years, she still does not realise that her pillow is not the source of danger.

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  Mahdi, 1, in Horgos, Serbia: Mahdi is 18 months old and has only experienced war and flight. He sleeps deeply despite the chaos around him. The refugees are protesting against not being able to travel further through Hungary, as police will eventually use tear gas and water cannon on them.

By definition, a refugee is someone who leaves one country to seek refuge in another.

The children in these photographs had little say about the circumstances that led them to join the human tide that has swept into Europe this summer.

Their faces and stories were captured by the award-winning Swedish photographer Magnus Wennman, who has followed the story from the borders of Turkey to Beirut and Jordan, and the railway stations of central Europe.

All of these young girls and boys carry a heavy load of trauma with their few possessions.

The horrors they have witnessed are etched on their faces and in their minds, and will not easily be forgotten. If all goes well, they may find safety in their new homes … but a refuge from their past will be another matter.

All photos: Magnus Wennman / Aftonbladet / Rex / Shutterstock