A heartbreaking picture has emerged of a little boy wandering in the desert, separated from his family while fleeing war-torn Syria.
Marwan, 4, was found by UN workers near the border of Jordan and Syria, lagging behind his relatives.
The boy was photographed carrying a plastic bag full of his possessions on Monday by Andrew Harper, Jordan’s representative to the UN’s High Commissioner for Refugees.
Aid workers helped the boy cross the border into Jordan and a follow-up tweet from Harper yesterday let the world know that Marwan’s family had been found.
“Just to let you know that Marwan was safely reunited [with] his mother soon after being carried across the Jordan border,” he shared on Twitter, along with a second picture of the boy being carried by an aid worker.
It is unclear how long the boy was separated from his family.
A reporter tweeted on Monday evening that a UNHCR official said Marwan was only 20 steps behind his family after he became lost during the confusion of the crossing.
Nonetheless, the picture of the isolated boy has struck a chord, perhaps because it serves as a reminder of the many young children who have lost or become separated from their families due to the conflict.
The picture of Marwan was one in a series of pictures posted by Harper in the last few months, as the aid worker documents the ‘endless tide’ of refugees fleeing Syria into Jordan.
-With Mail Online input
