Thousands of children among 113,000 still disappeared in Syria: rights group

More than 113,000 people, including thousands of children, remain forcibly disappeared after being detained in Syria since 2011, a rights group said on Friday.

The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) said at least 113,218 people, including 3,129 children, are still disappeared after being arrested by parties to Syria's war or "controlling forces" in the country.

Syrian regime forces were responsible for disappearing more than 85 percent of the total, while the Islamic State (IS) group was responsible for eight percent of cases, according to SNHR's figures, which ran from March 2011 to August 2024.

"The Syrian regime has used enforced disappearance as a strategic instrument to consolidate control and crush its opponents," SNHR said in a report published on the annual International Day of the Disappeared.

"The enormous number of enforced disappearance victims confirms that this is a systematic, routine practice carried out in a widespread manner against tens of thousands of detainees," the organisation added.

"As such, it constitutes a crime against humanity."

The remainder of the disappearances were attributed to armed opposition factions, the US-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), and the hardline Islamist group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) which dominates Idlib province.

SNHR said 157,634 people, including 5,274 children, remain in detention and/or are forcibly disappeared, with regime forces responsible in 87 percent of cases and IS in six percent.

SNHR executive director Fadel Abdul Ghany told The New Arab's Arabic sister service Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that the vast majority of arbitrary detentions in Syria turn into enforced disappearances, especially when it comes to the regime.

"Enforced disappearance persists over the years," he said, adding that the regime can't do without the practice.

It is one of the regime's "savage weapons", Abdul Ghany said.

US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Friday that the Syrian regime "has used arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance as a tool of repression against its real and perceived critics" for many years.

More than 96,000 people remain forcibly disappeared by the regime until today, he said in a statement – a figure in line with the number reported by SNHR.

Miller said this leaves families "desperate for answers" about the fates of the disappeared, "with the regime extorting and punishing those trying to learn more".

He added that on Friday the State Department was "taking steps to impose visa restrictions on 14 Syrian regime officials for their involvement in repressing rights in Syria, including involvement in or association with enforced disappearances".

The ongoing war in Syria began in March 2011 with protests against the regime of President Bashar Al-Assad, which were repressed, leading to escalating armed violence.

Russia and Iran have intervened in the war to support Assad, while IS exploited disarray and tensions in Syria and neighbouring Iraq to proclaim a so-called caliphate in 2014.

While the extremist group was later territorially defeated, it continues to carry out attacks.