The head of the Independent Institution for Missing Persons in Syria (IIMP), Karla Quintana, stated during a press conference on Wednesday that finding the thousands of Syrians who disappeared under the Assad regime requires a collective international effort.

Quintana warned that time is running out, and locating the missing urgently requires the support of the international community. At the UN’s New York headquarters, she warned that the “crisis of the missing in Syria affects not only hundreds of thousands of families, but entire communities on the whole Syrian society.” She urged that “comparative experience” and the mobilization of “every available skill, resource, and capacity” are necessary to achieve the IIMP’s mission.

A major challenge to the IIMP’s efforts, according to Quintana, is the uncertainty of records. The IIMP cannot confirm exactly how many Syrians have disappeared, and relevant records are difficult to obtain. The UN has clarified that the “conflict has made many areas inaccessible, records may be incomplete or destroyed, and some regions remain unstable and dangerous to work in.”

The UN-established IIMP serves to help Syrian families locate their relatives, and “find the truth” about their disappearances. The IIMP also provides legal assistance and psychological support to families of missing loved ones.

The body is a response to what the UN describes as “tens of thousands” of missing people who disappeared under the Assad regime over a period of 50 years. As a result, rights organizations also recently urged the Syrian government to increase efforts to investigate and deliver justice for the thousands of individuals that are still missing from the Assad regime.

The 53-year hereditary dictatorship of the Assad dynasty fell in December 2024, with the ousted president Bashar al-Assad, flying to Russia. In September 2025, Syrian authorities issued an arrest warrant for al-Assad for crimes including “premeditated murder, torture leading to death, and deprivation of liberty.” The sitation in Syria remains fragile. According to recent reports of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, the body received allegations of “killings, looting, abductions and kidnappings” in several Syrian regions. The UN has requested the protection of civilians amid rising inter-ethnic violence and the escalating military operations in the region.