' Syria earn money on disappearances '

damascus - The Syrian regime earns money from the people themselves disappear. "Through a sinister black market to be exploited relatives who want to have information about the fate of their loved ones," Amnesty International wrote in a report published Thursday.

Since the beginning of the civil war in Syria, in 2011, at least 65 000 people disappeared, including 58 000 citizens. They are, according to the human rights organization held in appalling conditions in overcrowded cells. Contact with the outside world is not permitted. Disease, torture and executions are part of the disappearances.

Amnesty says there are all sorts of shady intermediaries who work for the regime accept bribes from desperate relatives who want to know where their relatives reside and whether they are actually still alive. They count down amounts from several hundred to thousands of dollars to obtain that information.

Among the people who disappeared, journalists, human rights defenders, doctors and social workers. The slightest criticism is often enough to be picked up and disappear.