In March 2018, VICE travelled to the Beqaa Valley with photojournalist Andrew Quilty and World Vision Australia to document stories of refugees on the seventh anniversary of the Syrian War.Seven years ago, the Arab Spring was sweeping across the Middle East. A generation of young Arabs called for revolution, toppling governments in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen. Many thought the protests that broke out in the Syrian city of Daraa would spell the end of the rule of President Bashar al-Assad. But things quickly turned violent.
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The war that's followed has seen nearly five million Syrians flee the country in fear for their lives, many of them children. These kids are sometimes called Syria's "lost generation." Some of them have crossed continents and oceans in search of safety. Others only made it past the mountains that flank Syria's western border, to the Beqaa Valley in Lebanon.Australian photojournalist Andrew Quilty travelled with VICE to the Beqaa to meet Syrians who've turned 18 this year, just before the war's seventh anniversary. He photographed them outside their tents, many made from old advertising billboards, emblazoned with the splurges of another life.These young people were 11 years old when the war broke out. They've spent their entire teenagehood in the Beqaa, some just hours from their hometowns. Most pass the time working in manual labour jobs, very few go to school. Fewer still celebrated their 18th birthday.
Zakaria, 18
Aleppo
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Nasir, 18
Afrin
WATCH: VICE Australia travelled to Lebanon to meet the young Syrian refugees living in limbo
Mirvat, 18
Raqqa
Issa, 18
Aleppo
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Rajab, 18
Aleppo
Mohammad, 18
Daraa
Ramia, 18
Aleppo
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Kousai, 18
Raqqa
Malak, 18
Aleppo
Ahmad, 18
Aleppo
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