Over the past 14 years, more than 37,000 individuals have been registered as missing by the ICRC in Syria. This number represents only a fraction of the true toll, with countless families enduring the anguish of uncertainty, often for years, with no news of their loved one’s fate. The disappearance of a loved one is not just a personal tragedy; it is one of the most profound and lasting wounds of Syria’s conflict.
“Behind every disappearance is a family living with pain that deepens with time,” said Stephan Sakalian, head of the ICRC delegation in Syria. “Families of the missing deserve consistent and compassionate support in their search for answers and closure. Their right to know is a fundamental humanitarian principle.”
One mother’s words reflect the pain and resilience shared by so many:
“When they said the prisoners had been released, I hoped to find them. The nephews still ask about my sons. My grandson says, ‘I wish I could see my uncles and be like them.’ I still have hope that they will return one day.”
For more than a decade, the ICRC has worked alongside families of the missing, offering psychosocial and other forms of support, and facilitating the search for answers. The ICRC provides the Forensic Identification Centre in Damascus with technical expertise, equipment and training to improve record-keeping, preserve gravesites and strengthen identification efforts. It also supports the initiatives of the Syrian National Commission for the Missing to help build a coordinated, transparent and family-centred response. The ICRC is engaging with all relevant stakeholders to advocate for the prevention of further disappearances, an essential obligation under international humanitarian law (IHL) and humanitarian principles.
The search for the missing is not a task for one actor alone. It requires the sustained collaboration of families of the missing, associations of families of the missing, authorities, civil society, international organizations and donors.
The ICRC continues to coordinate with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC), which handles missing cases related to migration and natural disasters, and other concerned stakeholders, to fulfil its commitment in standing by the families of the missing and helping them find the answers they deserve.
Note to editors
The figures shared above represent only those cases documented by the ICRC and National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies as missing as of the end of August 2025. They do not represent the total number of people missing in Syria.
About the ICRC
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is a neutral, impartial and independent organization with an exclusively humanitarian mandate that stems from the Geneva Conventions of 1949. It helps people around the world affected by armed conflict and other violence, doing everything it can to protect their lives and dignity and to relieve their suffering, often alongside its Red Cross and Red Crescent partners.
For more information, please contact:
Fareed Al-Homaid, ICRC Damascus, falhomaid@icrc.org, +963 930 336 718
Suhair Zakkout, ICRC Amman, szakkout@icrc.org, +20 1063866680
