Thirteen years of civil war, more than half a million dead and tens of thousands of missing: The Syria He is currently trying to shed light on one of the darkest chapters of his regime Bashar al -Assad. According to a New York Times survey, at least 3,700 children were abducted by intelligence services and placed in orphanages, often with false identities so that their families cannot be identified.
Journalists had access to classified documents under Bashar al -Assad’s regime in Syria and databases of Air Force Intelligence Services, which confirm the extent of this mechanism. Many of these children resulted in structures managed by NGO Children’s Villages SOS based in Austria.
The role of SOS Children’s Villages
SOS, presented as the world’s largest NGOs for children without parents, operates in 127 countries and declares almost $ 2 billion annual revenue. But the organization has also been accused in the past of hosting children who had been abducted, especially in El Salvador in the 1980s.
In Syria, according to the survey, its executives received direct children from the secret prisons of the regime. Relatives who were looking for them often found the door closed unless they had the approval of the secret services. The NGO admits that it hosted 139 children between 2013 and 2018 at the request of the Syrian authorities – only 34 returned to their families. More than a hundred were re -delivered to the regime, without the organization being aware of their fate.
Many children saw their names change, according to documents. Some were subsequently recruited by force to the Syrian army, while others were imprisoned for trying to leave the front.
A survey by the new government
Since the fall of Assad last December, an official committee is investigating these disappearances. Former ministers and directors of orphanage have already been interrogated, while other regime officials are fleeing.
So far, 314 children who have disappeared and have resulted in institutions, but the number is considered very incomplete: several orphanages appear to have destroyed or falsified their records. Researchers estimate that only massive DNA tests, such as in Argentina or El Salvador, will be able to reveal the identity of children and unite them with their families – a huge effort for a country still rejected by war.