VOICES OF THE MISSING
In Syria, like in many other countries affected by armed conflicts and violence, the ICRC knows that those left behind do not only suffer from the physical absence of their loved ones. Very often, they also face legal, administrative, psychosocial, economic and social challenges that also require to be urgently considered and addressed.
Disappearance is one of the most painful and enduring humanitarian legacies of the Syrian conflict. Based on structured interviews, focus group discussions, and results validation workshops with families of missing persons across seven governorates, this assessment sets out to understand what disappearance does to families who lost a loved one and what families themselves say they need most.
The findings are unambiguous. Uncertainty about a loved one’s fate — not economic hardship, not legal limbo, not even grief itself — is the central, organizing experience of every family consulted. Yet that uncertainty has a ripple effect, reshaping household incomes, mental health, legal status, and trust in institutions for years, often decades, after a disappearance occurs.
This briefing summarizes the assessment’s key findings and translates them into a concrete agenda for engagement — for the National Commission for Missing Persons, national authorities, and humanitarian and civil society partners working alongside Syrian families of the missing.
