Local networks have documented the loss of contact with Syrian migrants from Daraa province, southern Syria, in Libya.
On August 31, Daraa 24 network reported that at least 16 people from the city of Tafas in western rural Daraa are missing, including children and women, who are documented by name.
According to the network, contact was lost with three other people from the city more than 20 days ago, after they were on a boat that sailed from the Libyan coast.
A reporter from Enab Baladi in Daraa contacted a relative of the missing persons, who requested anonymity, and confirmed that a group of his relatives disappeared while trying to migrate by sea from Libya, and contact with them was lost since August 26th.
Another relative of the missing persons told Enab Baladi that there were no indications whether the missing persons were kidnapped or drowned, as no entity contacted the families to demand a ransom, nor were there any official reports of Syrian deaths on the Libyan coast.
According to Enab Baladi’s reporter, the missing persons so far include 16 people from Tafas, one from Jabab, another from Sheikh Maskin, one from Hama province, and two Egyptians.
Distribution of detention centers in Libya
Yesterday, Saturday, Horan Free League posted a video on Facebook, claiming to be from inside the Zuwara prison in Libya, documenting the suffering of Syrian migrants who were arrested after an armed militia attack while attempting to cross to Italy.
Simultaneously with the release of the video, the Libyan Attorney General‘s office announced the dismantling of a network engaged in smuggling migrants and human trafficking, which had been holding 1,300 migrants forcibly, subjecting them to torture to extort money from their families in exchange for their release.
Syrians are attempting to migrate in various directions, either from the Lebanese coast or from Turkey towards Greece. Daraa also records significant migration attempts that sometimes turn into humanitarian disasters, as happened in June 2023, when a boat, considered an old fishing vessel, sank off the Greek coast after departing from Tobruk port in Libya. It had about 750 people on board, dozens of whom were from Daraa.