Syria's 'lost boy' not quiet the full picture

A heart-rending picture of a four-year-old Syrian boy apparently alone in the desert, separated from his family and clutching a tattered plastic bag of possessions, seemed to epitomise the refugee crisis caused by the civil war.

The image went viral after it was tweeted by United Nations staff who helped the child find his family, with the caption: "Here 4 year old Marwan, who was temporarily separated from his family . . .", and then retweeted to a wider audience by a CNN International anchor with the caption "UN staff found 4 year-old Marwan crossing desert alone after being separated from family fleeing #Syria".

But it was not quite what it seemed at first glance. A second photograph, posted by UN staff on Tuesday, showed that the boy was straggling behind a larger group of refugees. "He is separated - he is not alone," Andrew Harper, head of the refugee agency UNHCR in Jordan, who took the first picture, clarified. Marwan had been reunited with his mother within 10 minutes.

The picture triggered a wave of sympathy on social media, swiftly followed by scepticism and anger at the perceived misrepresentation of Marwan's plight. But it also threw a spotlight on the number of child refugees, both accompanied and alone, who have been forced from their homes in Syria over the past three years.

Marwan - a name given to the boy by UNHCR to protect his identity - was photographed close to the Hagallat border crossing between Syria and Jordan. Head cast slightly down, he is seen trudging through the desert sand dragging a large plastic bag.

He is dressed warmly in trousers, jumper and jacket in a region where winter temperatures plummet fast as the sun sinks. A female aid worker is bent sympathetically towards the small boy, perhaps asking him where his mother is.