In Syria during the 14-year civil war, many children were detained with their mothers. Then, security forces separated them. Thousands of these children have never been found.Since the fall of the Assad regime, parents of disappeared children have continued to search for answers. In this episode of The Sunday Story, NPR correspondent Diaa Hadid investigates: what happened to the disappeared children of Syria?This episode includes mentions of rape and torture.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
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I'm Ayesha Roscoe, and this is a Sunday Story from Up First, where we go beyond the news to bring you one big story. Over the winter, NPR's Dia Hadid was reporting in Syria. Rebel fighters had just overthrown the brutal dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad. In her weeks of reporting, Dia discovered something shocking. It wasn't just men and women who were imprisoned by the Assad regime.
Children were also taken, and many remain unaccounted for. Today on The Sunday Story, what happened to the disappeared children of Syria? Dia Hadid brings us the story from her reporting in Damascus after the break. Stay with us.
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I'm Aisha Roscoe. This is a Sunday story from Up First. NPR's Dia Hadid joins me now to talk about her reporting from Damascus. Dia, I know you were sent to Syria in the chaotic weeks following the Assad regime's fall. How did you come across this story about missing children?
Aisha, as I was seeing what was happening in Damascus, I couldn't stop thinking about the children. I'd covered conflicts like this for so long and I knew there'd likely be a large number of kids in orphanages whose parents had been detained or even disappeared during the civil war. And I kept thinking, what was happening to them now? And let me tell you, this was hard for me.
I have two young kids, so stories about vulnerable children really hit home. And I try not to take too many long trips away from them. So for this assignment, I felt like I needed their permission. So I told them, I'm going to Syria so I can meet little ones who don't have a mama who So is that okay to give your mama to some other kids for a little while? And my girls agreed.
That's very sweet of your girls.
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