Harrowing photos reveal how migrant children fleeing Syrian civil war are forced to sleep in the forests, alleys and gutters of Europe

Abdul Karim, 17, spends his nights bedding down on the ground in Omonoia Square, in Athens. Penniless, he used the last money he had on a ferry ticket to Greece. Abdul is able to borrow a phone to call his mother back home in Syria, but he dare not tell her how her how bad his situation has become. He said: 'I dream of two things: to sleep in a bed again and to hug my younger sister'

Ahmad, 7, sleeps on the pavement on the border of Hungary and Austria. At home in Idlib when a bomb struck his family's house, he escaped with his life despite being hit in the head by shrapnel, while his younger brother died. Forced to flee, Ahmad and his family have slept in bus shelters, on the road and in the forest since leaving Syria

Abdullah, 5, sleeps on a filthy mattress outside central station in Belgrade. He suffers from a blood disease and witnessed the killing of his sister at their home in Daraa, Syria. His mother has no money to pay for medicine, and he is still in shock and suffers nightmares

Every night for the past year, Ralia and Rahaf, aged seven and 13 years old, have slept on pieces of cardboard on the streets of Beirut with their father. Originally from Damascus, a grenade killed their mother and brother

Ahmed, 6, sleeps on the grass in Horgos, Serbia. He carries his own bag over the long stretches that his family walks by foot as they attempt to make their way to the safety of Europe. Ahmed is cared for by his uncle after his father was killed in their hometown Deir ez-Zor in northern Syria

Gulistan, 6, says she misses her pillow at her old home in Kobane. Now living in Suruc, Turkey, she is afraid of sleeping because of nightmares

Pictured are Esra, 11, Esma, 8, and Sidra, 6, sleeping with their mother. The children now live in Majdal Anjar, Lebanon, but constantly dream about their father, who disappeared after he was abducted

One-year-old Sham, from Syria, is held in her mother's arms at the border of Austria and Serbia. The pair, who are desperate to reach Europe, arrived in the area just a day after a large group of refugees were let across the border

Shehd, 7, loves to draw. But scarred by her upbringing during the Syrian Civil War, she only draws pictures of weapons. They are everywhere, her mother explained. Her family has difficulty finding food during their wanderings in Hungary

Moyad, 5, and his mother were walking to the markets when they walked past a taxi in which someone had planted a bomb. It detonated, killing his mother. Here he is pictured in a hospital in Amman, Jordan, where he is being treated for the shrapnel lodged in his back, head and pelvis

Despite being 20 months old, Amir (pictured), laughs a lot but has never spoken a word, his mother says. Now sleeping in Lebanon, she believes her son was traumatised in the womb

Fatima, 9, is one of the lucky few to have reached Sweden. However, she is haunted by the memories of the atrocities she saw on the journey. After fleeing Idlib, Syria, she spent two years with her mother and siblings in a refugee camp in Lebanon, after which they boarded an overcrowded boat. During the journey, she witnessed a mother give birth to a stillborn child, who was then thrown overboard

Shiraz, 9, was three months old when she came down with a fever and was diagnosed with polio. She now sleeps in a wooden cradle in a refugee camp in Suruc, Turkey, and her parents cannot afford to spend too much money on her medicine

Iman, 2, lies in a hospital bed in Jordan suffering from pneumonia and a chest infection. Her mother Olah, 19, said she used to love playing in the sand and was a happy child - but now just sleeps most of the day and night

Fara, 2, lies under a blanket in a makeshift bed in Azraq, Jordan. A massive football fan, her father every night says goodnight in the hope he will find a football for her to play with the following day

Tamam, 5, can recall the air raids on her hometown of Homs which usually took place at night. Although she has been sleeping away from home for nearly two years now, she still doesn't realize that her pillow is not the source of danger, her parents said. Here she is pictured lying down in Azraq, Jordan

Juliana, 2, has spent the past two days walking through Serbia in an attempt to cross the border into Europe. She sleeps during the day because at night her family attempts to make the crossing

Maram, 8, sleeps on a temporary bed in Amman, Jordan. She had just returned from school when a rocket hit her family home and a piece of the roof landed on top of her. Airlifted across the border to Jordan, head trauma caused a brain hemorrhage. For the first 11 days, she was in a coma. Although she is now conscious, she has a broken jaw and cannot speak

Mohammed, 13, hopes to one day become an architect. Here he is pictured daydreaming from his new bed in Nizip, Turkey

Walaa, 5, is terrified of her pillow because it was while she was resting that the attacks occurred in her home town of Aleppo

Lamar, 5, originally from Baghdad, sleeps on a blanket in the woods near Horgos, Serbia. She and her family were on their way to buy food when a bomb was dropped close to their house. Forced out of their home, after two attempts to cross the sea from Turkey in a small, rubber boat, they succeeded in reaching Hungary's closed border