JINHA

ANTEP – Syrian refugee children working on the streets of the city of Antep say they dream of the day the war ends and they can leave behind the dangerous life of street workers.

Since hundreds of thousands of Syrians were forced to abandon their homes in the course of the Syrian civil war, the population of the city of Antep has nearly doubled, according to unofficial figures. The victims of war are a source of cheap labor in the city—particularly children, who regularly spend 18-hour days selling water, tissues and flowers or collecting trash.

Children typically spend the week sleeping on the streets of the city, heading back to the refugee camps where their families live only on the weekends to hand over their money.

M., 11, is the oldest child in the family and takes on most of the economic responsibility.

"We start at six or seven in the morning," said M. "We're done with work at 12 or one at night and we go home." M. said most children earn around 30 or 40 lira (around $12-16) in a day.

M. and A., eight and 13 years old respectively, are two Syrian children working in Antep. Their family lives in a camp in the town of Birecik, in the neighboring province of Urfa, around 80 kilometers away. During the week, the two brothers sleep in a tent in a park in Antep along with 30 other Syrian children.

"There's no bath or toilet so we have to use the mosque or go to the refugee camp to bathe or use the toilet," explained one brother. "We are waiting for the war to end. We want to go home to our country and go back to school."

Photography: Piroz Zırığ

(pz/fk/cm)