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Syrian refugee children at camp in Akka, Lebanon

If young Syrian refugees don鈥檛 get an education, they will run the risk of becoming radicalised or falling into child labour or child marriage.

The warning came today from Gordon Brown, the 鈥� as he called for urgent international help to get more refugee children into schools in Lebanon.

Mr Brown : 鈥淯nless you invest in educating children and getting them into school you deprive a whole generation of hope.

鈥淚t鈥檚 hope that education gives that you can return to normal, that you can plan for the future, that you can have children who are going to be properly educated for jobs, even if they鈥檙e in camps or in settlements for 10 years.鈥�

The education envoy is at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, this week. He called for an emergency fund for education in crisis-hit countries and told delegates that a shortfall in funding meant only 100,000 Syrian children were being educated in Lebanese schools.

Mr Brown told the BBC that only 2% of humanitarian aid is targeted at education 鈥� and unless that improves it will deprive refugee children of hope.

Gordon Brown meets Lebanon education minister Elias Bou Saab Picture:听

Hundreds of thousands of refugee children have fled the Syrian war with their families into neighbouring countries including Lebanon. Mr Brown said there was a plan in place through the 鈥済enerosity of the Lebanese government鈥� to get 500,000 children into existing schools. He said it would cost about $500 per child per year.

Mr Brown said听the danger is that with every month that 听the international community refuses to fund the plan 鈥渨e have more and more young people who become discontented, disenchanted and of course lose the opportunity to make a contribution through their skills鈥�.

He added:听鈥淲e know that if children are on the streets, if they鈥檙e ignored, if they鈥檙e neglected there鈥檚 a danger of child slavery, of child labour, child marriage, child trafficking.

鈥淭here鈥檚 also a danger of childElias Bou Saab 鈥� who meet Mr Brown in London before the Davos summit 鈥� also told the BBC that if refugee camps were exploited by extremists, the international community would also be 鈥減aying a price鈥�. Referring to the killing of innocent people in Paris reently, he said: 鈥淭hese terrorists, those extremists have no boundaries.鈥�