Around six million Syrians were made refugees following the outbreak of civil war in 2011 [BAKR ALKASEM/AFP via Getty Images]
A new organisation devoted to searching for missing Syrian refugees was formed during a session of the UN’s Human Rights Council in Geneva this week, coinciding with the UN’s International Day for the Right to the Truth.
The Association of Families of Missing Asylum Seekers (AFOMAS) will seek to find out information about Syrians who disappeared while attempting to seek refuge abroad.
The group also seeks to strengthen justice systems to ensure accountability, elevate the issue of missing refugees, record those who went missing, and support the families of those disappeared.
Some six million Syrians became refugees outside their country during the 14 year conflict in Syria, which broke out in 2011 following the brutal suppression of peaceful protests by the Assad regime.
Batoul Karbijha, a founding member of the association, said: “Those who arrested and forcibly disappeared Syrians are the same ones who forced them to flee – only to meet death or disappearance along the way.”
“Our missing loved ones are not just numbers in news reports; they are parents, siblings, and children who left behind a void nothing can fill.”
The UN’s fact-finding mission for Syria’s disappeared, The Independent Institution on Missing Persons (IIMP) “gladly participated” in the launch of AFOMAS.
“This is part of the Independent Institution’s efforts to work hand-in-hand with families and their associations towards fulfilling their right to the truth,” the IIMP told The New Arab.
“The right to the truth is the right of victims and society at large to know the circumstances in which the violations took place and the reasons behind them,” IIMP said.
The search for Syria’s missing has become an increasingly central issue in Syria’s post-war transition.
Syrian Network for Human Rights estimates that 177,000 people were forcibly disappeared over the course of the war, the vast majority of them by the regime, with protests breaking out demanding the truth and justice for detainees.
Syria’s transitional government has said it will establish a national entity to address the issue while the IIMP said it has given the government a preliminary project aimed at supporting the government’s efforts at the sidelines of an aid summit in Brussels.
