The United Nations Approaches The Syrian Government Investigating Allegations Of 130,000 Missing People When The Assad Regime Is In Power

Cars across buildings destroyed in Daraa as a result of the chronic civil war between Syrian rebel groups and the Bashar Assad Government which collapsed in late 2024. (M Sulaiman-Unsplash)

JAKARTA - The United Nations will approach the Syrian government Ahmed al-Sharaa to determine the fate of the 130,000 people who are thought to have disappeared when the Bashar Al-Assad regime came to power.

UN Assistant Secretary-General Karla Quintana said the UN was investigating "forced disappearances" by the Assad regime, including missing children placed in orphanages by security agencies and forced disappearances by Daesh militants.

"Everyone owns or knows someone who is missing in Syria," he told UN reporters Wednesday local time, quoted from AP.

Quintana said the Independent Institution for Missing Persons in Syria formed by the United Nations in 2023 could only enter the country in January 2025, a month after the overthrow of President Assad, whose family led the Syrian government for more than 50 years.

Quintana said the current UN challenge was coordinating with the Syrian Commission for Missing Persons in the search process.

Before Assad was ousted, 130,000 people were thought to have disappeared in Syria. However, the head of the Syrian Commission for Missing Persons, Mohammed Reda Jalkhi, said in August 2025 that its estimates ranged from 120,000 to 300,000. "There may be more," he said.

Quintana said it plans to go to Damascus next week to discuss signing a joint agreement with the Syrian Commission for the search for missing persons in Syria.

"I firmly believe that at this time, the question is not whether we will work together, but how will it be practiced later. I'm sure we will find a way forward," he said.