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New report from the UN Syria Commission of Inquiry: “Pillage and Plunder: Unlawful appropriation and destruction of properties of refugees and IDPs in Syria”
The UN Syria Commission of Inquiry has released a new report highlighting the massive scale of systematic looting and destruction of homes that has ravaged the Syria over 13 years of war – called “Pillage and Plunder: Unlawful appropriation and destruction of properties of refugees and Internally Displaced Persons in Syria”.
The devastating consequences now confront millions of internally displaced persons and refugees – who are returning or attempting to make their way back home in the wake of the collapse of the former Government.
Since December, tens of thousands of civilians have again fled hostilities as areas shifted hands. The devastating patterns of pillage of homes of those fleeing newly captured areas must not be repeated. The report urges the parties of the conflict to prevent and punish pillage by forces under their own command; and to protect the property and possessions left behind by IDPs and refugees against destruction and illegal appropriation by others. The Commission is currently investigating recent allegations of looting and unlawful occupation of property in several parts of the country reportedly committed since 8 December 2024.
Full summary and report attached.
Summary:
The report documents pillage in Syria of such large scale that entire homes of IDPs and refugees have been dismantled and destroyed, systematically across entire districts – relying on satellite imagery analysis, authenticated videos and photographs as well as first-hand accounts.
The areas most affected by pillage have typically been those that have changed hands during the course of the conflict, such as areas that were re-taken by former Government forces in 2016-20, and Kurdish-dominated areas captured by the SNA in 2018-19. The demographic composition of many villages, towns, cities and entire areas has been altered, possibly permanently, lest the refugees and displaced are able to return in safety and dignity to their restored homes.
In areas affected by significant displacement, as the report documents, forces not only stole household items, furniture and valuables from the homes of IDPs and refugees, but also dismantled roofs, doors, windows, iron rods, electrical wires and plumbing fixtures, rendering entire neighbourhoods uninhabitable – reminiscent of the way swarming locusts would leave farmland and forests stripped of all edible greenery, leaving nothing but bare earth and branches. Syrians call such industrial-scale pillage “taafesh” and it is clearly visible on satellite imagery (annex to the report).
Such widescale, systematic looting was mostly conducted in areas controlled by former government forces, and by such forces. These include the Fourth Division, and affiliated security forces and militias, who concluded business agreements with private contractors or merchants interested in acquiring looted items, including raw materials. Trucks would transport looted items for sale in markets - including some created particularly for this purpose; like “the Sunni market” which sold looted items from homes of Sunni refugees and IDPs in Homs.
In areas controlled by armed groups, looting mainly affected movable items, with homes often seized or occupied to accommodate both displaced fighters and civilians. Looting seemed opportunistic rather than systematic, although sometimes with a sectarian dimension. The homes of refugees and IDPs have typically not been destroyed in these areas, but instead used to house millions of IDPs who fled northwards from Government-controlled areas. Sometimes, armed groups allocated homes of IDPs and refugees to their own fighters to live in with their families, for instance in homes of Kurdish families who fled Afrin, which were occupied by SNA fighters or IDPs who fled northwards from e.g. Ghouta.
The report concludes that there are reasonable grounds to believe that members of former government forces as well as members of opposition armed groups have violated the prohibition against pillage under IHL. When such acts were carried out for private or personal gain, such acts amount to war crimes. By imposing arbitrary restrictions on movements and unlawfully depriving people of their property rights in areas previously held by anti-Government armed groups in rural Idlib and Yarmouk, former government forces may also have committed the war crime of collective punishment.
Hitherto, to the best of the Commission’s knowledge, the impunity for the war crime of pillage has been near total in Syria, with the exception of a small number of convictions that the Commission has been informed of in SNA-held areas. So far, internationally, over fifty people have been convicted for mass atrocity crimes perpetrated in Syria. Among them, the only known convictions that relate to pillage or property offenses concern female former members of ISIL, while none of the forces perpetrating pillage on a massive scale as demonstrated in this report have been prosecuted.
The need for large-scale property restitution in the future is significant, as is the need for accountability and reform of Syria’s domestic housing, land and property framework, which was already in dire need of reform before the conflict began. The report lists a series of other challenges to the protection of housing, land and property rights in Syria, besides pillage. Failure to prevent and address such violations risk fuelling further grievances and social tensions and trigger new cycles of violence and displacement.
ENDS
More information on the work of the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria can be found here.
For media requests, please contact: Johan Eriksson, UN Syria Commission of Inquiry Media Adviser, at +41 76 691 0411 / johan.eriksson@un.org ; or Todd Pitman, Media Adviser, Investigative Missions, at +41766911761 / todd.pitman@un.org ; Pascal Sim, Human Rights Council Media Officer at +41229179763 / simp@un.org.