Syria: Missing People - Press Conference | United Nations

Press Conference by Karla Quintana, Head of the Independent Institution on Missing Persons in the Syrian Arab Republic on missing people. “We have the names of around a little bit more than 600 cases. Some of them we know for sure are alive, and some of them have already gotten back to their families,” the head of the UN's Independent Institution on Missing Persons in Syria (IIMP) said. ASG and IIMP’s chief, Karla Quintana, however emphasized while briefing reporters in New York, that that hundreds of thousands of Syrian families are still waiting for concrete answers about their missing loved ones, more than a year and a half after the fall of the Assad regime. “Over the past year we have been implementing our mandate. We have already been delivering news and information to families. We are building a system that is enabling us in analyzing information that is enabling us to give, every time, more information to families in Syria and abroad. We have been working not only in Syria, but in other countries with the diaspora: in Türkiye, Lebanon, Jordan, and Germany,” Quintana said. Quintana also said the joy that followed the collapse of the Syrian government on 8 December 2024 was not shared by all families, many of whom are still searching for answers. “Those people are still waiting for answers, and those people are still missing. So, the answers are there waiting, can only be built with information flow, again, scientific methodologies directed to finding the missing, political will at all levels, and trust. And we know this from comparative experience,” she said. The IIMP chief added that her office has so far identified more than 600 cases involving missing children, though she cautioned against raising expectations while investigations continue. “We have to be very cautious about how we manage the expectations with the families of the missing. When we talk about the concept of 'the missing,' this is very broad. So, we're not only talking about forced disappearances and the modus operandi where we know that many of the persons who were in prisons are dead — that's just the information we have now, but we cannot affirm that 100 per cent. And we also know that there might be some trafficking, so that's a possibility as well. We cannot, again, raise expectations until we have information,” Quintana said. She noted that while access to Syria has improved under the new authorities, the IIMP still lacks a permanent office in the country, something she has raised with the General Assembly. “So hopefully we can have an office in Syria, which will enable us to better implement our mandate, build trust with families, with Syrian authorities, and, in the end, be able to give more answers to families,” she said.


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