A Future in the Balance: How the conflict in Syria is impacting on the needs, concerns and aspirations of young people across the Middle East

An entire generation of young people in the Middle East faces unprecedented challenges in an environment of insecurity and poverty, risking losing their untapped potential to hopelessness.

Research published today by the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), carried out among displaced and local youth across Syria's neighbouring countries, shows how a lack of opportunities, harassment, exploitation, discrimination and movement restrictions dominate the lives of young people, with too little help available from the authorities and humanitarian agencies responding to the ongoing crises.

Young refugees from Syria face the greatest challenges with hundreds of thousands forced to live without valid legal documents. Youth from refugee-hosting countries are also struggling to survive due to the immense local pressures exacerbated by the crises. Youth in the wider region experience the highest rates of unemployment in the world, according to the International Labour Organisation. From Syria to Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey, the future of the region's youth, and thus the region itself, hangs in the balance.