There is currently no final unified national figure for the number of missing persons in Syria, but according to various estimates, approximately 140,000 people are missing, Ammar Alesah, Deputy Chairman of Syria's National Commission for Missing Persons (NCMP), Report informs.
Speaking during a panel session on the second day of the 4th International Conference within the Baku Dialogue on Missing Persons, Alesah explained that the scale of the challenges facing Syria is enormous.
"There are victims of enforced disappearance and detention from the period of the Bashar al-Assad regime. There are people abducted by ISIS. There are those who went missing as a result of military operations and violence. There are also Syrians who disappeared during displacement or while crossing borders as migrants," he stated.
The official stressed that this diversity of circumstances is one of the reasons why the issue of missing persons in Syria is particularly complex.
"This issue cannot be resolved through a single database or by technical means alone. That is why international partnership is crucial. It should not be viewed merely as financial or technical assistance, but as support for building an institutional structure capable of assuming this responsibility over the long term in Syria," he said.