Uncovering the fate of those who went missing during Syria's civil war is set to be a monumental undertaking that could span several years, according to the president of the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC).
"Identifying the missing and informing the families about their fate is going to be a huge challenge," ICRC president Mirjana Spoljaric told AFP in an interview published on Sunday.
The war, which began in 2011 with a violent crackdown on anti-government protests by President Bashar Al-Assad's regime, has left behind one of its most painful legacies: the unknown whereabouts of tens of thousands of detainees and missing persons. Many are believed to have perished in Syria's infamous prisons, with victims reportedly buried in mass graves after enduring torture. The conflict has claimed over half a million lives.
In recent weeks, the collapse of Assad's regime and the release of thousands of prisoners by Islamist-led rebels have offered hope to families but countless Syrians are still searching for missing loved ones.
Spoljaric explained to AFP that the ICRC is collaborating with the interim authorities, who ousted Assad last month, non-governmental organizations, and the Syrian Red Crescent to gather information and provide answers to families as swiftly as possible.
"The task is enormous," she stated, adding, "It will take years to get clarity and to be able to inform everybody concerned. And there will be cases we will never (be able) to identify."
The ICRC is handling a significant caseload, with Spoljaric noting, "Until recently, we've been following up on 35,000 cases, and since we established a new hotline in December, we are adding another 8,000 requests. But that is just potentially a portion of the numbers."
The organization is urging the new Syrian leadership, mostly made up of the rebel group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) which broke off from Al-Qaeda, to cooperate in building institutions and capabilities to manage and protect data related to the missing.
Spoljaric stressed the urgency of acting before valuable information is lost. "We cannot exclude that data is going to be lost. But we need to work quickly to preserve what exists and to store it centrally to be able to follow up on the individual cases," she told AFP.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which is based in the UK, over 100,000 detainees have died in custody since 2011 due to torture or dire conditions.