The Action Group for Palestinians of Syria (AGPS) said that the al-Assad regime’s security forces detained a number of Palestinian-Syrians after their voluntary return from one of the European countries to Syria.
In a report released on Sunday, the London-based monitoring group said that after their return from Europe to Damascus via Iran, the Palestinian-Syrians were ordered by security officials in Damascus airport to report to the notorious Palestine Security Branch in Damascus within a specified period.
The group added the returnees who reported to the Palestine Security Branch were detained there and nothing is known about their fate or the charges against them. It that the detainees did not join any of the warring parties in Syria.
In a report issued in late November, the AGPS said that at least 3,903 Palestinian refugees have been killed in Syria since March 2011. It noted that the majority of those were killed in bombardment by the Assad regime and Russia’s aircraft and as a result of sieges, armed clashes and torture. Others also drowned in the sea while trying to reach Europe.
The report indicated that at least 1,712 Palestinian refugees were still detained by the Assad regime and whose fate is still unknown. It added that no fewer than 560 Palestinian-Syrian detainees have died under torture in the prisons of the Assad regime.
Out of the 650,000 Palestinian refugees who were in Syria at the start of the revolution, as many as 150,000 have fled abroad, the London-based monitoring group said. It also said that more than 60% of the Palestinian-Syrians were displaced at least once inside Syria. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department)
