In a phone call with Zawia3<\/em>, Mohamed shared, “He asked me to hire a lawyer to save my brother before he could be transferred to Sednaya Prison, which is considered by many to be a death sentence. He then told me he would delete the account after our conversation. Despite contacting the head of the Bar Association, no one could assist us. Later, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reached out, assuring us they were working on bringing Ahmed back\u2014it\u2019s just a matter of time.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n The news of the fall of the Syrian regime on December 8, 2024, following the takeover of Damascus by armed factions, reignited hope for Ahmed\u2019s family. They began closely monitoring updates and searching social media platforms for any image or video showing him among the freed prisoners from regime prisons or his name in leaked detainee lists.<\/p>\n Their search led them to a video published by Al-Araby Al-Jadeed<\/em>, which documented prisoners escaping from Sednaya Prison on December 8. In the footage, Ahmed\u2019s face was clearly visible after more than four years of disappearance. However, as of now, he has not been able to contact his family, who are appealing to the Egyptian government to locate him and bring him safely back to Egypt.<\/p>\n Don’t miss: Cross-Border Suppression: Egyptian Consulates Impose New Restrictions<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n The circumstances surrounding Ahmed\u2019s disappearance differ from the story of Hussaini Mohamed, a 17-year-old from Desouk in Kafr El-Sheikh Governorate. Hussaini decided to migrate to Turkey in search of work to support his family after his father\u2019s health deteriorated and he incurred debts to marry off his daughter.<\/p>\n The young man bid farewell to his family and left his hometown for Cairo, heading to the airport to catch a flight to Istanbul. There, he stayed with a group of Egyptians and worked for a month washing dishes in a hotel but was not paid. Frustrated, he decided to leave Turkey. Hussaini then met a group of irregular migrants, including 14 Egyptians, planning to cross into Syria and then into Lebanon. Enthused by the idea, given that his cousins had been living and working in Lebanon for years, Hussaini joined the group.<\/p>\n In November 2013, Hussaini\u2019s family received their last call from him, informing them he was on his way to cross the Syrian border into Lebanon. After that, all communication ceased. His parents reported his disappearance to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, prompting security authorities to question his father for more information. However, no one provided any details about Hussaini\u2019s fate. Months later, the family learned through arduous efforts that Hussaini and the 14 other Egyptians were reportedly captured in Syria near the Lebanese border.<\/p>\n A Syrian lawyer they contacted informed them that the group had been arrested about four kilometers from the Lebanese border and distributed across three Syrian prisons: Sednaya, Palestine Branch (also known as Branch 235, run by Syrian intelligence), and Mezzeh Military Airport Prison. However, the lawyer could not pinpoint Hussaini\u2019s exact location, as his father recounted to Zawia3<\/em>.<\/p>\n <\/p><\/blockquote>\n 11 Years of Waiting: Hope Rekindled for Missing Egyptians in Syria<\/strong><\/p>\n Eleven years have passed since the disappearance of 14 Egyptian young men in Syrian territory, with their families unable to obtain information or confirm whether they are still alive. Just as despair gripped them, the fall of Assad’s regime and the opening of Syrian prisons reignited their hope of finding their loved ones among the freed prisoners.<\/p>\n The families began sharing their photos on social media groups dedicated to Syrian prisons and missing persons. Soon, they discovered Hussaini\u2019s name and passport number, along with the names of his 13 companions: Mohamed Awni Abu Hagam, Ali Abdel Rahman Ali, Ibrahim Hamdi Abu El-Naga, Mohamed Abdel Ghafar El-Sayed, Mostafa Mohamed Abdel Bari, Khaled Ibrahim Ali, Mohamed Ramadan Ibrahim, Gamal Mohamed Ahmed, Gamal Mohamed Ahmed El-Badry, Hussein Said Abdel Muttalib, Ramadan Ali Mohamed, Ramadan Saleh El-Shehat, Hatem Fakieh Abdel Gaber, and Khaled El-Mahdi Mohamed. Their names appeared on a list of Egyptian prisoners held in the Palestine Branch prison, a copy of which Zawia3<\/em> reviewed.<\/p>\n After the opening of Sednaya Prison, the family of Mostafa Mohamed Abdel Bari\u2014one of the 14 missing Egyptians\u2014found a photo of him among the freed prisoners. However, they have not been able to contact him so far.<\/p>\n Mohamed, the father of Hussaini, told Zawia3<\/em>: “We are devastated over our sons, who lost their youth. We approached former Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry\u2019s office years ago seeking information and were promised their return, but nothing happened. In February, Foreign Minister Badr Abdel Aaty met with us and assured us that the case of the 14 Egyptians would be reopened, promising to bring them back. All we want is to know the fate of our children.”<\/p>\n Don’t miss: Who Will Pave the Way for a New Syria?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n More than 20 years ago, Ali Hussein, now 36, decided to close his business in Saudi Arabia and return his wife and children to Egypt before reopening his printing press in Syria. During that time, he regularly called his family in Giza until contact was lost in April 2004. Desperate for answers, his family reached out to Egyptian security officials and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, hired a prominent lawyer, and searched all Egyptian prisons, hoping he might have been deported to Egypt and imprisoned there.<\/p>\n Ali\u2019s parents contacted the number their eldest son had last called from, only to be told he was injured. When they called again, the person claimed Ali had passed away. Heartbroken, the family mourned him and held a funeral, despite never receiving his body or a death certificate, as his sister Mariam recounted to Zawia3<\/em>.<\/p>\n After two decades of mourning Ali, who was officially declared missing in Syria, and enduring the death of his father from grief and his mother\u2019s declining health, the family received unexpected news. A recently released Syrian prisoner from Sednaya Prison contacted them following the fall of Assad’s regime. He revealed that he had met Ali in 2006 while they were being transferred from Mezzeh Military Airport Prison. The former prisoner was sent to Sednaya, while Ali was reportedly taken to the Palestine Branch prison. This news reignited hope that Ali might still be alive and could be among the freed detainees.<\/p>\n “My brother was a Salafi, bearded, prayed at the mosque, and was involved in religious outreach, but he wasn\u2019t politically active before traveling to Syria,” his sister said. “He wasn\u2019t affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood or any Islamic group, which might explain why he was imprisoned. If my brother is alive, he would now be 56 years old. We still have hope for his return.”<\/p>\n In late March 2011, Egyptian public opinion was shaken by news of the Syrian authorities detaining and torturing two Egyptian engineers, Khaled Abdel-Latif El-Ghaish<\/a> and Mohamed Abou Bakr Radwan<\/a>, on charges of espionage for Israel. A solidarity campaign<\/a> and protests ensued, prompting Egyptian diplomatic intervention. Eventually, Assad\u2019s security forces released both men, allowing them to leave Syria.<\/p>\n Khaled El-Ghaish, recalling the ordeal to Zawia3<\/em>, shared how he took a leave from his job as a computer engineer at a Lebanese company in March 2011 to visit Damascus and Aleppo. During his trip, he witnessed small anti-regime protests and large pro-Assad gatherings. However, his journey took a grim turn as he was stopped by Syrian security on a bus from Aleppo to Lebanon. After inspecting his Egyptian passport, belongings, and photos on his camera\u2014including some from Cairo\u2019s Tahrir Square during Egypt\u2019s January 25 Revolution\u2014he was blindfolded, handcuffed, and taken to an unknown location.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n When his blindfold was removed, Khaled found himself in a space filled with images of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his father, Hafez al-Assad. Around him were detainees on the floor, bleeding and showing signs of severe torture. Khaled was placed in a cell with three others and was interrogated the next day by security forces accusing him of espionage for Israel. He soon discovered he was being held in Homs Central Prison.<\/p>\n \u201cThey asked why I was in Syria, whether I had visited Sinai, and accused me of working for Tel Aviv,\u201d Khaled recounted. \u201cThey slapped and beat me, hurling insults and threats of further torture or disappearance into an unknown prison. They claimed my ‘accomplice’ had confessed, though I had never met him.\u201d<\/p>\n That “accomplice” was Mohamed Radwan, a 32-year-old Egyptian-American engineer who was arrested in Damascus on March 25, 2011, while photographing protests outside the Umayyad Mosque. Under severe torture, Radwan was coerced into appearing on Syrian state television, confessing to fabricated charges of espionage, including working with a group in Jerusalem and being paid to photograph protesters. Despite these confessions, the Assad regime released him in early April 2011.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Khaled, who was released on April 4, 2011, recounted: \u201cI was terrified, but after eight days, they suddenly freed me and allowed me to leave Syria. Crossing the Lebanese border felt like being reborn. I was lucky to escape. What I endured was only a drop in the ocean of violations in Assad\u2019s prisons.\u201d<\/p>\n The detention of Khaled El-Ghaish and Mohamed Radwan in 2011 was not the only documented case of Egyptians held in Syrian prisons. On July 18, 2012, the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that three Egyptian businessmen had gone missing in Damascus while on their way to the airport to return to Cairo.<\/p>\n The three missing businessmen were Rami Mohamed El-Khouly, his cousin Mohamed Salah El-Din, and their friend Osama Anwar Obada. They owned children\u2019s clothing factories and had traveled to Syria on July 14, 2012,<\/a> to explore new clothing designs. However, their families lost contact with them, and they did not return to Egypt on their scheduled flight.<\/p>\n Amr Roshdy, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the time, stated that the Egyptian embassy in Damascus had urgently contacted the Syrian Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Interior to investigate the whereabouts of the three Egyptian businessmen. The embassy requested that the relevant authorities expedite efforts to locate the missing citizens. He also advised extreme caution when traveling to Syria, given the deteriorating security and living conditions and the escalating violence in the country.<\/p>\n In July 2012<\/a>, Mohamed El-Fayoumi, then Egyptian Consul in Damascus, announced the successful efforts of the Egyptian embassy to secure the release of 24 Egyptians detained by Syrian authorities. He confirmed that they would return to Egypt within days. On July 27,<\/a> 2012, Cairo International Airport received 14 Egyptians from Damascus Airport. These individuals, who had been detained by Syrian authorities for attempting to cross into Syria illegally via Jordan’s coastlines to migrate to Lebanon in search of work, were released and repatriated at the expense of the Egyptian government.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n On October 20<\/a>, 2015, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry revealed its ongoing efforts to locate three missing Egyptians who had disappeared under mysterious circumstances in Syria. The Ministry had received reports from the families of these individuals confirming that they had been detained in Syria while crossing illegally into Lebanon from Turkey. The missing individuals were Ali Abdelrahman Ali Mohamed El-Beltagy, Hussein Said Abou Assi, and Mohamed Aouny Abd El-Shafei Abou Hegm. The Ministry stated that the Egyptian Consular Mission in Damascus had been directed to follow up on the matter with Syrian authorities and to ensure their safe return to Egypt. These individuals are among the 14 Egyptians mentioned earlier, whose families continue to search for them following the fall of the Assad regime.<\/p>\n Don’t miss: The Impact of Global Unrest on Egyptian Students Studying Abroad<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n No official or unofficial list of missing Egyptians in Syria exists to date. However, in its investigative journey, Zawia3<\/em> documented the names and details of 20 missing Egyptians. Among them is Ali Hussein Mohamed Ali, who has been forcibly disappeared in Syria since 2004, and Ramadan Ali Amer, who went missing near Damascus in 2008. Three other Egyptians\u2014Mounir Abu Saleh El-Shehat El-Darini, Gamal Mohamed Ahmed El-Badry, and Hatem Fakih Abdel Gabbar\u2014have been missing since 2008, with their families believing they were held in Saydnaya Prison or Branch 235, also known as the Palestine Branch.<\/p>\n Khaled El-Mahdi Mohamed Barakat disappeared in 2012, with his family suspecting he was detained in Mezzeh Military Airport. In 2013, a group of Egyptians, including El-Husseini Mohamed Fathallah, Mohamed Aouny Abu Hegm, Ali Abdel Rahman Ali, Ibrahim Hamdy Abu El-Naga, Mohamed Abdel Ghafar El-Sayed, Mustafa Mohamed Abdel Bari, Khaled Ibrahim Ali, Mohamed Ramadan Ibrahim, Hussein Said Abdel Mottaleb, Ramadan Ali Mohamed, Ramadan Saleh El-Shehat, and Khaled El-Mahdi Mohamed, were arrested near the Syrian-Lebanese border. Their names later surfaced among detainees in the Palestine Branch. Abdel Kader Ali Redwan went missing in 2015, and his family believes he was held in Saydnaya Prison. Ahmed Abdel Gawad Ali Ibrahim disappeared in 2020 in Jbeil, Lebanon, and his family later spotted him in a video showing released prisoners from Saydnaya.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n No official or unofficial statistics are available regarding the number of Egyptians detained in Syrian prisons in recent years. Prominent Egyptian human rights lawyers told Zawia3<\/em> they have no information on these detainees. They describe Syria under the Assad regime as a “black hole,” where those who enter rarely return. Additionally, some individuals previously reported as forcibly disappeared by their families were later found to have joined groups like ISIS or Al-Qaeda in Syria.<\/p>\n Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told Zawia3<\/em> that no precise numbers exist for Egyptian detainees in Assad’s prisons. There is also no information on their fate following the release of prisoners after the regime’s fall. He highlighted the mystery surrounding the disappearance of large numbers of detainees, including ISIS prisoners whose whereabouts remain unknown.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/\u0627\u0644\u0628\u0627\u0633\u0628\u0648\u0631-1.png\")
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Irregular Migration<\/strong><\/h1>\n
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<\/p>\nHope Rekindled<\/strong><\/h1>\n
<\/p>\nAc\u200d\u200dcusations of Espionage<\/strong><\/h1>\n
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<\/p>\nOfficial Interventions<\/strong><\/h1>\n
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<\/p>\nSyria Under Assad: A Black Hole<\/strong><\/h1>\n
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