Syria's child labourers denied an education by the coronavirus pandemic

Video report by ITV News Correspondent Emma Murphy

Mohammed is ten-years-old. He should be at school, but is instead working to provide for his family.

Four years ago he lost his leg in an airstrike after his home town, Saraqeb in Syria, was hit. At the time he was at primary school.

Since then, he and his family have fled to Idlib.

'My name is Mohammed Asa'ad... the jet hit me when I was young'

With his father, Mohammed goes to work in a mask shop, trying to make a living in the darkest of times.

Mohammed is one of many impacted by coronavirus.

The ten-year-old said: "We went to school and they said 'corona' - we had to stop".

Eventually, Mohammed says he asked his father if he could go to work with him - he had nothing else to do, he says.

Unicef has warned that the pandemic has set back efforts to reduce child labour among refugee children in Syria by a decade.

For the young people who have escaped the country, still living in refugee camps, getting a basic education offers them a lifeline.

But the Covid-19 outbreak has closed some of their schools, and forced some children to work to support their families as parents are hit by unemployment.

Juliet Touma, from Unicef, told ITV News:

"Because of Covid, and because of the poverty increasing among families, families were pushed to send their children to bring food to the table at the end of the day".