Syrian regime forces arrested Shadi Mohammed al-Shartah during his return from Lebanon following the recent Israeli escalation.

The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) reported today, Thursday, October 10, that the military intelligence of the regime arrested al-Shartah last Tuesday as he was entering Syrian territory from the Dabousiya border crossing and took him to an unknown location.

Al-Shartah, born in 1990, is from the town of al-Bara in southern Idlib. He was arrested without a legally issued arrest warrant from a court, and his family was not informed of his arrest. His phone was confiscated, and he was prevented from communicating with them or with his lawyer, according to the SNHR.

The SNHR expressed its fears that al-Shartah could be subjected to torture and added him to the list of those forcibly disappeared, as is the case for 85% of detainees.

Arrest of those fleeing death

Waves of Syrians and Lebanese fleeing from the Israeli bombardment continued through official and unofficial border crossings. Despite the humanitarian crisis surrounding the returning Syrians, the regime has arrested several individuals at the border crossings.

More than 247,000 Syrians have returned from Lebanon, in addition to 97,000 Lebanese, according to the local Al-Watan newspaper, quoting a source in the Immigration and Passports Department.

Between September 23 and October 2, the SNHR documented the arrest of at least nine Syrian refugees, mostly from the rural Damascus region, on charges of “mandatory and reserve conscription.”

The human rights organization noted that the arrests took place at both official and unofficial border crossings between Lebanon and Syria, with most being taken to security and military detention centers in the provinces of Homs and Damascus.

On June 20 of last year, the Syrian Network for Human Rights issued a report to mark World Refugee Day, stating that it had documented at least 4,714 cases of arrest of returnees from refugees and displaced persons by Syrian regime forces since the beginning of 2014 until June 2024.

The report indicated that among the 4,714 cases of arrest, the regime released only 2,402, while 2,312 individuals remain in detention, and 1,521 of them have been turned into forcibly disappeared persons.

Other rights groups and organizations have also issued reports about the regime’s arrest operations against returning refugees, including a report by Amnesty International titled “You’re Going to Your Death,” and a report by Human Rights Watch titled “Our Lives Are Like Death.”