UN official says some of Syria’s missing may still be alive, urges immediate action

ISTANBUL, Friday

A senior UN official said Friday that there is credible evidence some Syrians who disappeared during the country’s war are still alive, urging immediate action as efforts expand to locate hundreds of thousands of missing people.

Karla Quintana, chair of the UN-established Independent Institution for Missing Persons in Syria, told Anadolu on the sidelines of the TRT World Forum 2025 that there is “verifiable and credible information that some of the missing are alive,” saying some may be victims of sexual slavery or human trafficking.

She said the institute is pursuing several “lines of inquiry,” including those related to disappearances attributed to the Syrian regime, missing children, missing migrants, and individuals abducted by ISIS (Daesh).

“I would like to say that 10 months ago, we would not even be able to think about going to Syria to look for the missing after the fall of the regime,” she said. “Now we are able to enter Syria, and we are looking for hundreds of thousands of missing Syrians.”

National process strengthened by international backing

Quintana said the search must be led inside Syria with international support, calling for broad coordination between Syrian authorities, civil society, and UN bodies.

She said the institute is working with Syria’s recently formed National Commission for the Search of the Missing, headed by Rita Yalhi, and remains in regular contact with the Foreign Ministry in Damascus.

“This is the first time in the world … that there is an international institution looking for the missing and a national institution looking for the missing at the same time,” she said.

The institute has roughly 40 staff members, she said, adding that the scale of the crisis requires wider collaboration. “No one can do this alone. We are working with other UN entities, member states, Syrian civil society at home and abroad, and of course, the families of the missing,” she said.

-‘Technology, science and trust’

Quintana said advanced technology and forensic science are essential to identifying both the living and the dead.

“When we talk about forensic science, we're not only about dead people. We need DNA also to identify them and they're alive when we are talking about dead people,” she said.

She underlined that building trust among all parties involved is the most critical factor.

“We cannot find the missing if we don't work on trust building of all the actors. Families have to trust. The international community has to trust the authorities in order to get the information, the government has to trust international community and the families in order to work together,” she said.

-‘We are already late’

Quintana warned that delays put families at greater risk of never learning the fate of their loved ones.

“We are already late in looking for the missing, not only in Syria but all over the world," she said. "We know that families have the right to know the truth immediately, but we also have the responsibility and the obligation to explain that this takes processes.”

-Cooperation with Türkiye and neighboring countries

She emphasized the importance of cooperation with Türkiye and other countries where Syrians have lived or passed through during displacement.

“We need to engage with Türkiye and neighboring states where Syrians have gone through or stayed in the countries in order to get information,” she said. “The biggest challenge when looking for the missing is to share information and to have information.”

Quintana added: “This is a collective endeavor, and I am really, I am sure that Turkey is going to be an ally in this endeavor.”