Syria Disappearances: Families Seek Answers & Justice

A year after the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime on December 8, 2024, Syrians continue to search for answers about the fate of tens of thousands of missing people.

Syria’s Search for the Disappeared

Portraits once displayed on lampposts have been replaced by photocopied pictures of the missing, taped to shopfronts and walls across the country. Families have searched graveyards and abandoned prisons, hoping for any clue that might reveal the whereabouts of their loved ones.

Over 13 years of war, which resulted in over half a million deaths and the displacement of half the country’s population, the regime and its allies are believed to have disappeared between 120,000 and 300,000 people, according to Syria’s National Commission for the Missing.

The disappearances were systematic, carried out through a network of informants, secret police, and fueled by fear. Arrests were often made without warrants, based on accusations from neighbors, rumors from relatives, or even bribes.

Following the regime’s collapse, some Syrians celebrated while others rushed to prisons, including Sednaya Prison, searching for any documentation that might help locate their family members. They found evidence of torture, including ropes, chains, and electric cables, but few were reunited with their loved ones.

The new government, led by President Ahmed al-Sharaa, has pledged to uncover the truth. In May 2025, the National Commission for the Missing and the National Commission for Transitional Justice were established, along with advisory boards and ongoing legislative efforts.

However, progress has been slow due to a lack of resources, including laboratories, specialists, and funding. Officials acknowledge the immense challenge of building a national database, recruiting forensic experts, and establishing DNA testing capabilities, all while facing the threat of evidence decay.

The White Helmets, volunteers with the Syria Civil Defence (SCD), have taken on much of the ground-level work, photographing and documenting remains and fragments of identity like clothing, teeth, and bones. These remains are then sent to an identification centre, but remain sealed as no families have yet been reunited with the remains of the disappeared.

Without DNA laboratories, forensic specialists, or a functioning identification system, officials and humanitarian workers say the bones can only be stored, even when families believe they have identified them.

On November 5, the National Commission for the Missing signed a cooperation agreement with the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP), the Independent Institution on Missing Persons in Syria (IIMP), and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). These institutions will investigate past crimes, build a national database, support families, and work towards identifying and returning remains.

The agreement is intended to be the start of a comprehensive national process for truth and justice, with all parties committing to share expertise and build an identification system.

Estimates of the number of disappeared range from 120,000 to 300,000, compiled from various sources without a unified database. Gathering existing records – detention registers, civil documents, military files, and lists held by opposition groups and survivor associations like the Caesar Families, Families for Freedom and the Sednaya Association – is a crucial first step.

Collecting testimonies from survivors and families, and obtaining information from former officials and guards, is also essential. All this information must be uploaded into a central database, which has not yet been built.

“You cannot start immediately searching, looking for answers,” says Zeina Shahla, a member of the government’s National Commission for the Missing. “You need to set up the ground.”

Currently, Syria has only one identification centre in Damascus, established with the ICRC, and no dedicated DNA laboratory. Additional offices are planned, but have not yet opened.

“We have huge needs – technical needs, financial needs, human resources,” Shahla says. “Most of them are not available in Syria, especially the … scientific resources. We don’t have DNA labs. We don’t have the forensic labs. We don’t have the doctors. So we need a lot of resources.”

“And of course, this fight is too complicated because it’s affecting millions of people. We need to work fast, but at the same time, we cannot work fast.”

Officials point to the scale of the devastation: 13 years of war, hundreds of thousands missing, and institutions weakened by sanctions. Many families have not even reported their missing loved ones, fearing repercussions. Approximately one in five Syrians now lives abroad, complicating efforts to obtain reference samples for identification.

Some families feel their cases are not a priority, while others, like the Caesar Families Association, understand the process will take time. Even with fulfilled promises, the journey to identifying and returning the disappeared may take decades, and many families may not live to see their loved ones returned.