On a desk, Reem al-Kari and her cousin Lama are looking through dozens of pictures of kids. Lama believes she sees one that resembles Reem’s son Karim, who has gone missing. Karim was two-and-a-half before he and his father disappeared, in 2013 amid Syria’s civil conflict, when they ran an errand. He is one of almost 3,700 children who have not been found since the Assad tyranny ended ten months ago. Now he would be fifteen.
The guy behind the counter, the new manager of Lahan Al Hayat, a Syrian-run children’s shelter that former first lady Asma al-Assad assisted in founding in 2013, inquires, “Are his eyes green? During the 2011–2024 civil war, children of arrested parents were housed at a number of Syrian daycare centers, including Lahan Al Hayat. The children were kept in orphanages and used as political pawns rather than being rehomed with their family. In several instances, the children’s names were altered or they were mistakenly listed as orphans, which made it more challenging to track them down both then and now.
Journalists, activists, and families had access to sources, places, and records that were previously unthinkable during Assad’s decades-long leadership when his dictatorship abruptly ended in December.
Also Read:
In Texas, a Deadly Measles Outbreak Does little to Dispel Vaccine Skepticism
