Since the onset of the conflict in the Syrian Arab Republic, more than 5.3 million people, including 2.5 million children, have been living as registered refugees in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt. More than 90 per cent of these refugees are living in host communities and facing challenging socio-economic conditions, including high poverty rates, high costs of living, limited livelihood opportunities and the exhaustion of savings. These circumstances have led to negative coping practices—such as removing children from school, particularly girls, to work or marry—further exacerbating existing protection risks. Nearly 10,000 Syrian refugee children are either unaccompanied or separated, and many of these children are vulnerable to exploitation, including child labour, due to lack of legal documentation. Broader political and social pressures are impacting the stability of refugee/host community relations, which are strained by slow economic recovery in several countries, high unemployment rates, competition over lower-skilled jobs, and increasing humanitarian needs. These factors are leading to the depletion of already limited natural resources and government-provided financial resources, which has further challenged the provision of basic public services to both refugee and host populations. In 2017, more than 4.4 million people were in need of safe water in Iraq and Lebanon. The limited capacities of education systems across the region have left an estimated 731,000 Syrian refugee children out of school—a 6 per cent increase over 2016. In 2018, more than 5 million Syrian refugee children will require education assistance, 3.8 million will require protection support and 7.5 million will be in need of health assistance.