Syria's newly established National Authority for the Missing has warned that the number of people who disappeared under the Assad family's decades of rule and during the war that followed the 2011 uprising could exceed 300,000, SANA reported on August 18.

The new administration is keen to move on from the more than decade-long civil war and Ba'athist rule, which sent thousands to their death. However, there are concerns over the conduct of the new Turkish-backed administration’s actions in locations including Latakia and Hama in recent months since the sudden departure of the Assad regime in December 2024. 

Dr Mohammad Reda Jalkhi, head of the authority created in May, said estimates range between 120,000 and 300,000 missing persons. "We have a map that includes more than 63 documented mass graves in Syria, and our estimates for the number of missing persons range between 120,000 and 300,000 people, and this may exceed due to the difficulty of enumeration," he told SANA.

The authority's mandate covers the period from 1970—when Hafez al-Assad seized power—to the present day, with no specific timeframe to complete its work. The action plan for the actual launch consists of six phases lasting between three and six months each.

Tens of thousands were detained and disappeared during the Syrian war alone, which erupted in 2011 after a brutal crackdown on protests against Bashar al-Assad, who was removed from power in December last year after nearly 24 years in office.

Throughout the conflict, all parties were accused of committing atrocities. The Islamic State group, in particular, carried out systematic abuses, including mass executions, after capturing large swathes of Syria and neighbouring Iraq.

However, the Assad family's decades-long grip on power was widely regarded as among the harshest in the region. Syria's prison system, including the notorious Saydnaya facility, became infamous for disappearances, torture, and extrajudicial killings and was only seen on camera when the regime collapsed.

Work is underway to launch a national digital platform to create a database for missing persons, alongside a project for a card to legally, psychologically, and socially support families of the missing. According to the official, the authority operates according to six principles: participation, transparency, and inclusiveness.

"The missing persons file is one of the most complex and painful files in Syria," Jalkhi said, adding that "the commission's work is considered the cornerstone for the path of transitional justice and civil peace."

The authority has held consultations with international parties in Geneva, with cooperation protocols being signed with international institutions to support legal documentation and forensic medicine. The approach confirms that "the path of the missing must be led by the Syrians themselves."

The commission has obtained approvals to benefit from the laboratories of the Ministry of Health and the Syrian Atomic Energy Commission, in addition to securing grants to train Syrian cadres in European countries in forensic medicine and documentation.

Syria's new Turkish and Gulf monarchy-backed authorities have pledged to deliver justice for victims of past atrocities and pursue accountability as part of the country's transitional phase.

In January, the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross warned that clarifying the fate of Syria's missing could take years, given the scale of the crisis.