What happened to Syria’s missing children: Assad regime hid them in orphanages, says report

It’s been over six months since Syria’s Bashar al-Assad-led regime was overthrown after widespread rebellion in the country. Syrians, who were once troubled by the government, are now trying to ascertain the fate of their loved ones who disappeared during Assad’s rule, including thousands of children.

An investigation by the New York Times reveals that the Assad government forcefully disappeared at least 3,700 children whose parents were disloyal to the regime. The figures have been confirmed by the Syrian Network for Human Rights, although the true numbers could be much higher.

Where were these children sent?

Hundreds of children were forcibly separated from their families and placed in orphanages, some run by the NGO SOS Children’s Villages. Many were assigned false identities, making it nearly impossible for relatives to find them. Some were later adopted. Classified documents and intelligence databases created by Air Force Intelligence, the agency tasked with running the operation, obtained by the NYT, expose the full scale of the Assad regime’s secretive and brutal operation.

Senior Air Force Intelligence officials passed the orders to remove children from their parents’ care by asking the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour or the governor of Rural Damascus to find orphanage placements. They were also instructed to seek the approval of the mukhabarat, or secret police, before taking any action.

Ministers and governors subsequently instructed orphanages to conceal the children and withhold any identifying information. The Times discovered that at least nine facilities took in these children, including six operated by SOS Children’s Villages.

Identities altered

The publication interviewed several children whose identities were changed during their detention. Videt, the SOS spokesman, said “it is impossible to confirm whether all names were accurate,” but maintained that SOS “was never instructed to change or invent names for children in our care.”

In Syria, children officially labelled as having “unknown parentage” are exempt from military conscription, a problem for an army desperate for recruits during the war. Several former residents of the Lahn al-Hayat orphanage said they were assigned new identities once they reached conscription age. Many were then forced into military service, and at least one was imprisoned for attempting to desert the front lines.

The new Syrian government is now investigating the forced disappearance of children during the war by forming a committee.