On Friday, August 30, the United States imposed visa restrictions targeting 14 officials of the Syrian regime due to their involvement in cases of forced disappearances.

In a statement, the US Department of State said that the sanctions coinciding with the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances confirm “the United States’ solidarity with victims of enforced disappearance, survivors, and their families, aiming to bolster accountability for this egregious violation.”

The statement added that this measure is in addition to restrictions imposed on 21 Syrian regime officials and their immediate families, which were announced by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in March 2024 and December 2023.

The statement confirmed that more than 96,000 people, including women and children, are still forcibly disappeared by the regime, emphasizing that this “leaves their families desperate for answers about their fate while the regime continues to extort and punish those trying to learn more.”

The US Department of State emphasized that the actions of Assad’s officials are part of a broader systematic pattern of violations committed in Syria, calling on the Syrian regime to cease the disgraceful practice of enforced disappearance and abduction, clarify the fate of the missing, release those still alive, return the bodies of those who died in detention to their families, and deal in good faith with the independent institution established concerning the missing in Syria.

In June 2023, the United Nations General Assembly established an “independent institution” to reveal the fate of thousands of the missing in Syria over 12 years, at the repeated request of their families and human rights defenders.

The UN institution, named “The International Mechanism on the Missing in Syria,” was approved by the UN General Assembly after a vote with the approval of 83 members and rejection by 11 others.

The mechanism stipulates the establishment of an institution with UN funding within a specific budget, comprising employees of various specialties and investigators in enforced disappearances. Their task is to collect information from open and private sources, focusing on data provided by the families of the missing and assigning specialists to examine leaked photographs of torture victims.

Despite more than 13 years since the start of the Syrian revolution, the fate of thousands of detainees in the Syrian regime’s prisons remains unknown, who have now become forcibly disappeared. Human rights organizations continue to pressure to reveal their fate and hold the Assad regime accountable for its crimes.

The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) issued its 13th annual report on the phenomenon of enforced disappearance in Syria on Friday, August 30, on the occasion of the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, which falls on August 30 each year.

The SNHR reported that at least 113,218 people, including 3,129 children and 6,712 women, are still forcibly disappeared by conflicting parties in Syria from March 2011 until August 2024.

The Syrian regime forces bear the bulk of the responsibility for the forcibly disappeared victims at 85%, with at least 96,321 in its prisons, including 2,329 children and 5,742 women (adult females).

The report pointed out that in 2024, the Syrian regime continued to use enforced disappearance as a primary means of repression and control, and a tool for financial extortion of victims and their families. Since early 2024, the enforced disappearances primarily targeted refugees forcibly returned from Lebanon.