Tens of thousands of Syrians missing: aid workers face “huge” task
Published: Friday, Dec 13th 2024, 18:00
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After the upheaval in Syria, the tens of thousands who disappeared during the years of civil war and the rule of Bashar al-Assad are coming to the fore.
It could take not just days or months, but years, to come to terms with their fates and provide their families with answers, said Stephan Sakalian of the Red Cross.
The Syrian Network for Human Rights has counted around 157,000 missing persons in Syria since the outbreak of the civil war in March 2011. The deputy managing director of the Syrian civil defence organization Weisshelme, Faruk Habib, told the German Press Agency that the number could be over 200,000. Over the past 13 years, people in Syria have contacted the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) with around 35,000 missing persons cases, as Sakalian reported. However, the ICRC representative in Syria said in a video link that he assumed the true extent was much greater.
Traces in prisons, clinics, morgues and authorities
In view of the enormous amount of information and graves, Sakalian called for cooperation between Syrian authorities, civil society, international actors and the Red Cross. "We have a huge amount of work ahead of us," he said.
In the notorious Saidnaja military prison north of Damascus, many people have been searching for clues about their relatives in recent days. Sakalian expressed concern that official documents containing important information on missing persons were scattered around the prison.
"We have called on all actors in the country to do everything possible to secure this important data," said the ICRC representative. This applies not only to prisons, but also to morgues and hospitals as well as security and military authorities, he emphasized.
©Keystone/SDA
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