Forced disappearances have been an ongoing and documented issue in different parts of the world. People are considered “disappeared” because they are abducted without their loved ones receiving any information on their whereabouts or condition. And, many never return. 

According to the UN, “enforced disappearance has frequently been used as a strategy to spread terror within the society. The feeling of insecurity generated by this practice is not limited to the close relatives of the disappeared. It also affects their communities and society as a whole.”

CVT and the ongoing issue of the Disappeared

This issue is not isolated to any one place. At CVT, we work with organizations that support Syrian families of the disappeared as well individuals who experienced enforced disappearance. Within Syria, individuals often go missing due to political opposition or efforts to confront the government’s legacy of human rights violations. 

“This has been a long-standing human rights concern in Syria. But following the peaceful demonstrations and subsequent uprising in 2011, enforced disappearances it became a trademark violation perpetrated by the Assad regime and other armed groups like ISIS,” said Yusra Al Kailani, resilience program trainer with CVT.

Families of missing persons

In response to this issue, CVT’s Survivors of Torture Initiative (or SOTI) –  an initiative that supports Syrian civil society –  focuses on impacted families and communities from this region. Al Kailani said, “We support trauma healing, justice efforts and supporting the resilience of civil society.”

According to Al Kailani, SOTI works with a pioneering network of Syrian civil society organizations that address the ongoing issue of Disappeared persons. SOTI and its partner organizations support affected families – including those found and returned to communities – with mental health, trauma-focused physiotherapy, social services and other services. 

These different partners and associations provide rehabilitation and work on documentation, advocacy, transitional justice and accountability. They also support the search for missing ones in Syria and work with families to do investigations.

“This includes individual and group interventions in-line with training partners on trauma-informed approaches and ambiguous loss using focused approaches on how they can do their work, like interviewing families and understanding their experiences,” Al Kailani said. 

Their anger, hope, despair, how to be considerate and mindful of their needs and how to integrate this understanding into their work – whether it’s an investigation or sharing updates for families.”

No one can do this work without centering survivors’ needs and integrating trauma understanding into their work. 

The ongoing mental health impact of missing loved ones

“Since many of the Disappeared have returned to their families carrying trauma wounds in their hearts and bodies from torture, each of them has their own journey toward healing, rebuilding their lives and contributing to justice,” Al Kailani said. 

However, many haven’t returned yet and sadly their fate is unknown, leaving their families waiting and counting days and years.”

This means that families of missing loved ones live in endless cycles of hope and despair. Moments of hope can lead to a search, but then families come to a place of helplessness when they don’t receive any news. This then leads to difficult feelings like guilt and they return to search all over again. 

According to Al Kailani, women within these communities are especially vulnerable to experiencing anxiety, sadness and pain. This is largely due to newly shouldering double responsibilities. 

“There are a lot of responsibilities that families of missing ones are facing –  livelihood, childcare, family care, integration in a new country and the burden to keep searching for their loved ones without any answer,” Al Kailani said.

The whole process and the burden that they experienced really drains their energy, mentally and physically. This complicated grief can keep them isolated because others don’t understand.”

These families of missing loved ones require innovative, culturally-sensitive, trauma-focused support. According to Al Kailani, an important piece of this work is listening to families of missing persons and centering their needs in any decisions or programming.

The importance of community

Progress is being made when it comes to addressing the needs of families of the disappeared. A major example of this progress are the newly created structures to provide answers for the grieving. When it comes to addressing these needed supports, Al Kailani said the Syrian civil society programs and associations formed by families of missing persons have been vital to CVT’s advocacy and rehabilitation work within these communities. These intentional spaces organically allow impacted individuals and families to share pain, foster solidarity among them and advocate for their rights.

An example of these efforts is with the creation of the International Institute for Missing Persons (IIMP) through the UN. This group is working to establish a new mechanism to document and search for missing individuals. All of this work is thanks to the efforts of Syrian civil society associations.

Through my experience working with families of missing ones, I’ve seen resilience and courage in how they manage their lives and continue supporting their families and others. To me, this is hope in their lives, and how they sustain themselves,” Al Kailani said. 

The resilience trainer stressed the importance of the continued support these communities need. Al Kailani emphasized the compounding struggles and ongoing traumatic stress that come with relocation and living as a refugee. 

“We need to listen to these groups to keep learning about their needs and how to respond to them. We need to center them in any decision, in any program and in any strategy we are considering,” she said.

They need our ongoing support and real efforts to find their loved ones and we need to listen to them with empathy.”