Syria - Poverty fuels child labour among Iraqi refugees

Aseel Ali*, aged 16, and her mother - both refugees from Iraq - earn just enough (US$174 per month between them) in a Damascus handicraft workshop to pay their rent and buy food. "I have to help my mother as our savings ran out," Aseel told IRIN. "We start early in the morning and finish at 4pm, and also take work home," she said. Aseel's family fled to Egypt in 2006. In 2007 her father went back to Iraq for a short visit but has since gone missing. After their savings dried up, the family returned to Iraq in January 2009 on one of the free government-organized flights designed to stimulate returns, but the family received fresh death threats and Aseel's 12-year-old brother was kidnapped and tortured. Once he was released, his mother decided they should flee again - this time to Syria.