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The U.S. State Department announced on Friday that it will impose visa restrictions on 14 Syrian officials because of their involvement in human rights abuses in Syria, including enforced disappearances.
These new restrictions follow similar actions taken in March and December 2023, which targeted 21 Syrian officials.
The State Department says these abuses are part of a broader pattern by the Bashar Assad government, which has long used arbitrary detentions and enforced disappearances to silence critics.
The State Department estimates the Syrian government has forcibly disappeared nearly 100,000 people.
"Over 96,000 men, women and children remain forcibly disappeared by the regime to this day - leaving families desperate for answers about their fates - with the regime extorting and punishing those trying to learn more," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.
"On this International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, the United States stands in solidarity with victims and survivors of enforced disappearance, as well as their families, and is taking action to promote accountability for this cruel abuse," Miller said.
The U.S. wants the Assad regime and other Syrian actors to end disappearances and abductions, clarify the status of missing individuals, release those still alive, return the remains of those who have died and cooperate with the new Independent Institution on Missing Persons in Syria.
The State Department also wants to halt retaliatory actions against those seeking information about missing persons.
"We reaffirm our unwavering support for the Syrian people, including their ongoing peaceful demands for freedom and dignity, and we will continue to take action against those responsible for repressing Syrians," Miller said.
Some information for this report was provided by Reuters
The Voice of America provides news and information in more than 40 languages to an estimated weekly audience of over 326 million people. Stories with the VOA News byline are the work of multiple VOA journalists and may contain information from wire service reports.