On May 20, 2023, Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) personnel carried out a raid and arrest campaign in the Hawayej Boums’a and Mheimda camps housing internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the western suburbs of Deir Ez-Zour governorate. The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) documented the arrest of 12 civilians from Deir Ez-Zour city, who were taken to an undisclosed location.
It should be noted that the detainees’ phones wereseized following their arrest, and they have not been allowed to contact their families.
SNHR is concerned that they may be subjected to torture in detention and may go on to become yet more enforced disappearance cases, with 85% of all those detained in Syria falling into this category.
We call for the provision of reparations for the victims and their families, both materially and morally, and call on all parties to put an end to all arbitrary detentions whose only purpose is to spread mass fear and extort people.
We also call for revealing the fates of thousands of people forcibly disappeared at the hands of the SDF.
