Washington on Friday said it is imposing visa restrictions on 14 Syrian regime officials for their involvement in repressing rights in Syria, including their connection to enforced disappearances.
The US administration has not released the names of the officials. But leaked reports said they were senior officials close to President Bashar Assad.
In a statement, the State Department said the actions of these individuals are part of a broader systemic pattern of abuses committed in Syria.
It noted that the Assad regime has used arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance as a tool of repression against its real and perceived critics.
“Over 96,000 men, women, and children remain forcibly disappeared by the regime to this day – leaving families desperate for answers about their fates – with the regime extorting and punishing those trying to learn more,” the statement said.
These restrictions come in addition to restrictions on 21 Syrian regime officials and their immediate family members that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced in March 2024 and December 2023. They targeted those involved in the repression of Syrians and others involved in the production and trafficking of drugs and Captagon.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said on Friday the actions of the 14 individuals are part of a broader systemic pattern of abuses committed in Syria.
“The US calls on the Assad regime and other actors in Syria to cease the reprehensible practice of disappearance and abduction, clarify the fate of those missing, humanely release all those still alive, return the remains of those who have perished in its custody, and engage in good faith with the newly established Independent Institution on Missing Persons in Syria,” he noted.
The spokesman then warned the Syrian regime from taking any retaliatory and exploitative actions against individuals seeking information on the status of missing persons.
“We reaffirm our unwavering support for the Syrian people, including in their ongoing peaceful demands for freedom and dignity, and we will continue to take action against actors responsible for the repression of Syrians,” Miller said.
He then noted that Washington continues to stand in solidarity with all US citizens who are missing or unjustly detained in Syria, and calls on the Assad regime to account for its actions.
Among the US missing persons in Syria is Austin Tice, a former US Marine and a freelance journalist, who was kidnapped in August 2012 while reporting in Damascus.
US President Joe Biden has repeatedly called for his release.
The decision to impose restrictions on the 14 Syrian officials comes as the UN marked on Friday the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances.
The State Department said on this day, it stands in solidarity with victims and survivors of enforced disappearance, as well as their families, and is taking action to promote accountability for this cruel abuse.
Also to mark the International Day of the Disappeared, the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) released on Friday its 13th annual report on enforced disappearance in Syria.
The group noted that at least 113,218 of the people arrested by the regime in Syria since March 2011, including 3,129 children and 6,71 women, are still forcibly disappeared.
The 22-page report says that the Syrian regime has used enforced disappearance as a strategic instrument to consolidate control and crush its opponents.
It adds that the judiciary itself has served as another instrument used by the regime to facilitate and cover up enforced disappearance crimes.
