Global Charity Conceals Report on Its Role in Syria's "Missing" Children

SOS Children's Villages International Admits More Than 140 Children Were Transferred to Its Centers by Syrian Security Services

By Haya Al Badraneh and Charlotte Alfred, BBC Eye Research

A global children's charity has said it will not publish a report it ordered to investigate its role in separating children from their families during Syria's civil war.

The charity, SOS Children's Villages International, has yet to compensate Syrian families affected by government-organized detentions, despite pledging to do so in programs the BBC World Service collaborated with a group of international journalists.

Under former President Bashar al-Assad, Syrian security forces took hundreds of children from their imprisoned parents and told SOS and other orphanages to hide their identities and whereabouts.

A BBC Eye investigation, Syria's Stolen Children, as part of a joint project with Lighthouse Reports and other media in September 2025, found that the regime is using children to pressure their families and negotiate prisoner exchanges.

Sisters Leila and Layan Ghobis were eight and four years old when they were taken from their mother Umama in 2015 and brought to SOS. It had been three years since they met their parents in a prisoner exchange.

When they met again, Layan did not recognize her mother.

The family later fled to the United States as refugees through the United Nations, but the trauma of those lost years still weighs heavily on them.

"Whether we're together or alone, it's us," Mama told the BBC.

"It had a huge impact on every member of our family."

After the fall of Assad in 2024, SOS acknowledged that more than 140 children had been taken into care by Syrian security forces.

The SOS Federation, which has associations in more than 130 countries and has received grants and financial aid from the United Nations and European governments, commissioned an investigation by Norwegian law firm Wiersholm into who was responsible.

The report was submitted in December 2025, and lawyers told the BBC in January that an anonymized version was likely to be released to the public.

How the Syrian Dictatorship Used a Global Children's Charity to 'Disappear' Children

But months later, in a May email seen by the BBC, SOS chairman Domenico Parisi told staff the investigation was "compromised" and would not be shared internally or made public.

In a recording of an internal meeting obtained by the BBC and a wider group of journalists, Parisi accused unnamed staff of trying to "manipulate" the report to make the organization "look like we're evil".

SOS International said it was not in a position to comment on internal discussions as its investigation was ongoing.

A draft version of the report, seen by the BBC, said SOS was not forced to accept children from security services and that it was the charity's international office in Vienna that had ultimate responsibility. SOS facilities in Syria

An SOS spokesman said its board had taken "independent legal advice" in relation to the report and an investigation was ongoing. He said the board was "committed to creating institutional accountability for decisions made".

The decision not to release the final report has added to tensions that are tearing apart the charity, which was founded in 1949.

Societies in Britain, Norway, Switzerland, Sweden, France and the Netherlands - which contributed significant funds to the organization's budget - have since decided to leave the federation and become independent charities.

In December, the directors of the German association SOS Children's Villages Worldwide, the largest contributor to SOS, voted to leave. But Germany's supervisory board, which acts as the charity's trustee, rejected them and fired all three directors in February.

SOS Worldwide told the BBC that the executives had been fired for "serious breaches of duty". The managers disagree and are challenging their dismissal in German courts.

Before the ouster, German officials had set up a "voluntary compensation" fund for Syrian victims, but no money has been distributed so far, according to a number of leaked documents from multiple sources seen by the BBC.

A spokesman for SOS said the charity had expressed its "willingness" to support those affected, but the provision of assistance "depends on legal and practical matters," which would require coordination with the relevant parties.

The Syrian families we met said they were still waiting to hear the SOS.

"I was hoping that SOS would apologize and support me to make up for the damage they caused by separating me from my family," Emameh Ghobis said.

"Nobody at SOS talked to us or gave us anything."

This BBC Eye investigation is part of a joint project with Lighthouse Reports, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Women Who Win the War and Al Jumhuriya.

Charlotte Alfred is the senior editor of Lighthouse Reports.