SOS Children's Villages Withholds Report on Role in Syria's 'Disappeared' Children

SOS Children's Villages International has told staff it will neither circulate internally nor publish an investigation it commissioned into how children were separated from their families during Syria's civil war, according to the BBC. The charity has also not paid out compensation to the Syrian families affected, despite plans seen by the BBC World Service, which worked with a group of international journalists.

The investigation was conducted by the Norwegian law firm Wiersholm and delivered in December 2025. Lawyers indicated in January that an anonymised version would likely be made public. In a May email seen by the BBC, however, SOS board chair Domenico Parisi told staff the review had been 'compromised'. In a recording of an internal meeting obtained by the BBC and other journalists, Parisi accused unnamed staff of trying to shape the report so the organisation would appear to be 'the villains'. SOS International said it could not comment on internal discussions while its review continues.

A draft copy of the report seen by the BBC found that SOS was not forced to accept the children from Syrian security services, and that ultimate responsibility for the relevant SOS facilities in Syria rested with the charity's international office in Vienna. A spokesperson said the board had taken independent legal advice and was committed to establishing institutional responsibility for the decisions taken.

Under former president Bashar al-Assad, Syrian security forces took hundreds of children from imprisoned parents and instructed SOS and other orphanages to hide their identities and whereabouts. A BBC Eye investigation published in September 2025, part of a joint project with Lighthouse Reports and other media, revealed that the regime used the children to pressure their families and negotiate prisoner exchanges. Sisters Layla and Layan Ghbeis were eight and four when they were taken from their mother, Omama, and brought to SOS in 2015. Three years passed before a prisoner exchange reunited them, and Layan did not recognise her mother when they met again.

After Assad's fall in 2024, SOS acknowledged that more than 140 children had been taken to its childcare facilities by Syrian security forces. The federation, founded in 1949 and with associations in more than 130 countries, has received donations and grants from the UN and European governments. The decision not to publish a final report has deepened tensions that threaten to break the charity apart: its associations in the UK, Norway, Switzerland, Sweden, France and the Netherlands have decided to leave the federation and become independent charities.

In December, the directors of the German association SOS Children's Villages Worldwide, the largest single contributor to SOS, voted to leave, but the supervisory board overruled them and dismissed all three in February. SOS Worldwide said they were fired for 'serious breaches of duty'; the directors dispute this and are challenging their dismissal in German courts. Before their removal, the German directors had set aside a voluntary compensation fund for Syrian victims, but leaked documents seen by the BBC indicate no money has been distributed. Omama Ghbeis said no one from SOS had spoken to her family or given them anything, and that she had hoped for an apology and support for the harm caused by separating her from her children.