The Assad Regime was a dictatorship in Syria that was ruled by Hafez al-Assad and his son and predecessor, Bashar al-Assad. It lasted for 54 years until a revolt against it in December 2024. The Assad government was a brutal system that involved unfair conviction, cruel punishments, and vigorous surveillance. While it was in power, the nation was in a fierce civil war. Now, after the overthrowing of the Assad Regime, a new government and newfound stability has been established. But in the aftermath of the regime, thousands of children are lost and in orphanages across the country with their parents not knowing their location.

During the regime, brutal punishments were given to anyone who spoke out against the regime. One of these punishments was disappearing the family members of the people convicted of the crime. A mother, Sukanya Jebawi, and her 2-year-old daughter, Hiba, were one of the victims of this cruel method. They were arrested from their homes and thrown in a dim cell with several other mothers and their children in 2018. About a month later, children were taken from the prison and taken to hidden orphanages near the Syrian capital of Damascus(shown in the image above). The whole act of hiding children and other family members was to force relatives who were under charges to surrender and give themselves to the government. In the case of Jebawi, her brothers had taken part in an attempt to rise up against the dictator Bashar al-Assad in 2011, so the government was after them.

The family began their search for Hiba once her mother was released from prison in 2019. After the mothers of the children were released from detention, the orphanages tried to return the children to their families undercover. In the case of Jebawi and her daughter, her brother finally found Hiba weeks after Jebawi was released. But the whereabouts of many of the lost children remain unknown. Out of the approximate 314 children that were moved to secret orphanages, many are still missing.

Cites –

https://www.npr.org/sections/goats-and-soda/2025/03/16/g-s1-53476/syria-orphanages-assad

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/18/magazine/takeaways-syria-missing-children.html

https://www.understandingwar.org/report/assad-regime