Under Bashar al-Assad’s regime, hundreds of Syrian children were hidden in orphanages as a means of coercing their parents. Years later, families are still struggling for answers from both the new government and the international charity that facilitated this secrecy.
During Assad’s totalitarian rule, when political opponents or defectors were detained, their children were often taken as well—vanishing almost immediately.
Over more than a decade, Syrian security forces removed hundreds of children from their families and placed them in a network of orphanages to pressure their parents into cooperating with the regime. Some of these facilities were managed by the major European charity SOS Children’s Villages, whose leadership was aware of the situation for years yet remained silent.
Hundreds confirmed missing; thousands unaccounted for
Over nine months, Syrian and international journalists from six media outlets collaborated on the Syria’s Stolen Children investigation, building a database of children taken by the Assad regime.
After the regime’s fall in December 2024, the team examined thousands of leaked and collected documents, identifying over 300 children who had been confined to orphanages by Syrian intelligence, some for years. Many were toddlers or even newborns at the time of removal. The files reveal systematic coordination between intelligence agencies, government ministries, and both Syrian and international orphanages.
Evidence of missing or falsified records suggests the true number of disappeared children is likely far higher. Some were recorded as abandoned orphans, others under new identities. Families continue searching for at least 3,700 children taken during Assad’s rule.
Orphanages as prisons; children as leverage
More than 100 interviews with families, whistleblowers, and officials revealed troubling details that contradict claims the orphanages were merely protecting children of jailed parents. Most parents were denied any information about where their children were sent. When relatives located them, orphanages often refused to release the children, sometimes denying their presence entirely.
While in these orphanages, children remained under strict security service control. Leaked intelligence documents show officials ordered staff to keep the children’s presence secret, deny custody requests, and seek approval for decisions such as school attendance. Children were instructed not to discuss their families, and were kept out of publicity materials.
The motive was explicit: children were held to pressure parents into collaboration. Some reunions only occurred as part of prisoner exchanges with armed groups. Children of suspected foreign fighters were sometimes deported to Russia or Iraq.
An international charity complicit
The majority of children in the investigation were placed in orphanages operated by SOS Children’s Villages International, an Austria-based charity active in over 130 countries with annual revenues of around €1.6 billion, including funds from the UN, European governments, and private donations.
Despite whistleblowers informing SOS staff seven years prior, leadership remained silent until the regime fell. The charity did not apologize, compensate, or support affected families. A senior staffer admitted, “senior executives didn’t want to know the details and hid away from concrete action and responsibility.” Most children were returned to government custody, and SOS still claims it lacks full knowledge of their fates.
SOS Syria’s branch was led by the daughter of a close Assad aide. The charity claims it stopped accepting children of detainees in 2018, but official records indicate intelligence agencies continued referring children as late as 2022. SOS denies receiving these referrals. Funded by European governments and the US and UK, many senior SOS Syria positions were reportedly appointed by Assad’s palace, with Asma al-Assad playing a leading role. SOS Children’s Villages International says it is investigating Syria operations, noting practices were inconsistent with its global policies.
Families left without answers
Over 100 interviews with families, orphanage staff, and officials reveal that many parents still lack basic information about their children’s whereabouts. Children remain traumatized by early separation, while thousands of families continue searching for missing loved ones, whose identities and locations may be lost in chaotic records.
Syria’s transitional government has struggled to respond. A January inquiry folded into a May committee led to arrests in July, but has limited resources and no public findings yet.
Human rights lawyer Kimberly Motely says, “the key findings indicate the children could be victims of crimes against humanity, including imprisonment, persecution, and enforced disappearance.”
Syria’s Stolen Children investigation was coordinated by Lighthouse Reports with Syrian journalists from Women Who Won the War and SIRAJ, and international journalists from BBC Eye, The Observer, Der Spiegel, and Trouw, also published by Sowt and Al-Jumhuriya.
Methods
After Assad’s security state collapsed, journalists, activists, and families gained access to previously unreachable sources and documents. Many families began revealing that their children had been placed in orphanages against their will.
Over nine months, the investigation conducted more than 100 interviews with families, orphanage staff, government officials, whistleblowers, and witnesses, including over 50 SOS insiders. Thousands of official documents from the Ministry of Social Affairs, Airforce Intelligence, and orphanages were reviewed, including correspondence, detainee lists, referral files, logbooks, and case records. All documents were carefully preserved for future justice processes.
Records were cross-checked against publicly available information, social media, media reports, and civil society documentation. Legal records verified charges against parents where possible. A database of over 320 confirmed children was built, using criteria including:
Under 18 at the time of removal
Taken by one of four intelligence services
Not personally accused of a crime, but a family member was
Transferred to civilian orphanages without attempts to locate relatives
Families were interviewed following trauma-informed methods for “ambiguous loss,” with 54 confirmed cases and dozens more ongoing.
Storylines
Over 100,000 people disappeared under Assad, including thousands of children, leaving Syria with one of the world’s largest missing populations. Following the regime’s fall in December 2024, thousands were freed, and some mass graves discovered, but most families remain without trace of loved ones.
The BBC Eye documentary Syria’s Stolen Children follows three mothers searching for missing children or seeking justice. Families face bureaucratic hurdles, falsified records, and broken promises.
The system that engulfed these children was overseen by top security and government officials, according to Al-Jumhuriya. In a Sowt podcast, grandmothers describe pleading with orphanages while jailed parents were taunted.
Mohammed Ghbeis, taken from a Damascus hospital incubator as a newborn along with his detained mother and seven relatives, saw his mother a year later during a prison visit. He and his cousins spent three years in orphanages before release in a prisoner exchange, carrying lasting trauma.
Investigations uncovered abuse and allegations ignored across SOS’ operations globally. SOS, founded in 1949 by Austrian Hermann Gmeiner, receives millions in donations. German and Dutch SOS associations have suspended funding, citing inability to guarantee children’s well-being. SOS partnered with Asma al-Assad’s Syria Trust for Development despite international sanctions.