Syria
Demonstrators hold photos of missing persons at the Ummayad Square in Damascus. AFP file photo
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Tuesday that more than 38,000 people have been officially registered as missing in Syria over the past 15 years, warning that the true figure is likely far higher.
“The ICRC has recorded more than 38,000 missing persons in Syria over the past 15 years,” Fareed al-Homaid, the ICRC’s spokesperson in Syria, told Rudaw, adding that “this figure includes only cases documented by the ICRC and National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.”
He emphasized that the number represents only a fraction of the real scale of the crisis.
“It is widely believed that this figure accounts for just a portion of the actual number,” al-Homaid said. “The issue of missing persons remains enormous, with tens of thousands of families still searching for answers about the fate of their loved ones.”
In May, Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa signed a decree establishing an independent national commission for missing persons tasked with operating across the country to help determine the fate of tens of thousands who disappeared during the brutal rule of former dictator Bashar al-Assad.
At the time, the ICRC welcomed the move, describing it as “a very positive decision and a first step toward finding solutions and answers for the families of the missing.”
Al-Homaid noted that of the 38,000 cases registered with the ICRC, 31,000 remain under investigation.
“Some families have received answers through family reunification, the release of detainees, or the identification of human remains,” he said. “However, the search continues for the vast majority.”
He added that determining the fate and whereabouts of missing persons is a long-term process that can take decades.
According to Syria’s transitional government in Damascus, more than eight million Syrians were wanted by Assad’s intelligence and security services.
In December 2024, a coalition of opposition groups led by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), then commanded by Sharaa, toppled Assad’s regime. Sharaa was appointed interim president in late January 2025.
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