Where are Syria's Lost Children? Hidden in Orphanages Under Assad
In 2013, Hani al-Farra's wife, who was pregnant, and their three children vanished at a Syrian regime checkpoint. Despite years of searching, he found no trace of them. However, when reports surfaced that children of detained women were being hidden in Damascus orphanages, he resumed his search.
In 2018, Syrian security forces detained Sukayna Jebawi and her 2-year-old daughter, Hiba, to pressure her husband's brothers, who were involved in the 2011 uprising against Bashar al-Assad. The detention of family members posed a dilemma for the regime: what to do with the children?
Jebawi described the dire conditions in their cell, where Hiba suffered from malnutrition and illness. After a month, guards forcibly took the children from their mothers. Jebawi reassured her daughter, hoping for a reunion. She was released in 2019 and began searching for Hiba, who was among hundreds of children placed in orphanages while their mothers remained detained.
An NPR investigation revealed that by 2014, the Air Force Intelligence Directorate had moved over 300 children to orphanages in Damascus. Many of these children were eventually returned to their mothers, but the fate of others remains unknown.
Orphanage directors explained they had no choice but to comply with the regime's demands. Most children were under 10, some born in detention, and arrived in poor health. The orphanages also housed children of foreign fighters.
The orphanages tried to trace the children after they were taken by intelligence agents, but records were often incomplete or chaotic. The situation became public when Hassan Alabbasi, a Syrian-Canadian, saw a photo resembling his missing niece. This led to revelations about the orphanages' role in hiding children.
SOS Children's Village, an international charity, admitted to taking in children under orders from security forces. They are now reviewing records to determine how many children were hidden.
The Life Melody Orphanage's records were also disorganized, complicating efforts to trace the children. A Ministry of Social Affairs official criticized the orphanage for neglecting its duty to track the children.
Despite the challenges, these revelations have sparked hope among families of the estimated 2,300 children missing since the war began. Al-Farra, whose family disappeared in 2013, continues to search for his children, driven by the possibility that they might be alive in an orphanage.
Jebawi was eventually reunited with Hiba in 2019, though the child struggled to reconnect with her mother. Meanwhile, al-Farra, who has since remarried and had more children, remains hopeful that he will find his missing children, especially his daughter Islam, who would now be 17.