Syria

Department for International Development written question – answered at on 26 March 2015.

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Photo of Richard Burden Richard Burden Shadow Minister (Transport)

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what reports she has received on an increase of arranged child marriages among Syrian refugees in Jordan; and what steps the Government is taking to protect children from such marriages.

Photo of Justine Greening Justine Greening The Secretary of State for International Development

The Government is extremely concerned about reports of an increase in arranged child marriages among Syrian refugees in Jordan. A UNICEF report in January 2014 indicated a rise in the proportion of Syrian refugee girls who had married early (defined as before the age of 18) in Jordan, from 12% in 2011 to 32% in the first quarter of 2014.

Child protection is a central part of DFID’s humanitarian response to the Syrian crisis and we provide multi-year funding to UNICEF to support their work in this area. In addition we also support organisations such as CARE, International Rescue Committee (IRC) and UNHCR. These interventions all have a child protection component. UNHCR and UNFPA co-chair the ‘forced and early marriage’ taskforce, which has developed a joint action plan to reduce the risk and mitigate the consequence of child marriage and forced marriage in Jordan, and to build the capacity of local organisations to tackle this issue. The UK also successfully lobbied the Government of Jordan to sign up to the Girl Summit 2014 Charter which is a global movement to end Female Genital Mutilation and Child, Early and Forced Marriage for all girls everywhere within a generation.

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