Why does Children's Villages International withhold a report on its role in the issue of "hidden" children in Syria?

An international children's charity announced that it would not publish a report it was commissioned to prepare to investigate its role in separating children from their families during the war in Syria.

The International Children's Villages (SOS) charity also did not provide compensation to affected Syrian families, despite its pledge to do so in plans seen by the BBC World Service.

During the era of former President Bashar al-Assad, Syrian security services seized hundreds of children from their detained parents, and instructed SOS Children's Villages and other foster homes to conceal their identities and whereabouts.

The Documentary Investigations Unit (BBC Eye) published a documentary and investigation entitled “The Stolen Children of Syria” in September 2025, in cooperation with Lighthouse Reports and other media outlets, and revealed that the regime used the children of political detainees to pressure their families and negotiate prisoner exchanges.

Three years passed before the two girls were able to return to their parents, after they were released as part of a prisoner exchange deal.

When Leanne met her mother again, she did not recognize her.

Later, the family sought refuge in the United States through a United Nations program, but the effects of the years in which the two girls were deprived of their family still haunt them today.

Umama told the BBC: “Whether we are together or alone, we cannot stop thinking about what happened to us. The experience left a great impact on every member of the family.”

After the fall of Assad's rule in 2024, the foundation acknowledged that Syrian security forces transferred more than 140 children to its care facilities.

The foundation, which has associations in more than 130 countries and has received donations and grants from the United Nations and European governments, commissioned the Norwegian law firm Wiersholm to conduct an investigation to identify those responsible.

The report was submitted to the organization in December 2025, and lawyers told the BBC in January that a version of it, in which the names of the people involved were redacted, would likely be published.

But months later, in May, the organization's board chairman, Domenico Baresi, informed employees in an email seen by the BBC that the investigation had been "undermined" and that the report would not be circulated within the organization or made public.

In a recording of an internal meeting obtained by the BBC and its partners, Parisi accused unnamed employees of trying to “manipulate” the report to make the organization “appear to be the one to blame.”

The Foundation said its review is still ongoing and, therefore, it is not in a position to comment on internal discussions.

However, a draft of the report seen by the BBC indicates that the foundation was not forced to accept children from the security services, and that the charity’s international office in Vienna bears ultimate responsibility for the facilities of the concerned foundation in Syria.

A spokeswoman for the Foundation stated that its Board of Directors consulted an independent legal body regarding the report, and that the review is still ongoing. She added that the Council is committed to determining institutional responsibility for the decisions taken.

In December, directors of the German Association of Children's Villages International, the largest single shareholder in the international foundation, voted to withdraw. But the German Supervisory Board, which acts as guardians of the charity, overturned their decision and sacked the three directors in February.

Disagreements threaten the unity of Children's Villages International

The decision not to publish the final report led to escalating disputes within the Children’s Villages organization, which was founded in 1949, amid fears that this crisis would lead to the disintegration of the organization’s international federation.

Meanwhile, associations in the United Kingdom, Norway, Switzerland, Sweden, France, and the Netherlands, which contributed large sums to the organization’s budget, decided to withdraw from the federation and become independent charities.

In December, the directors of the German association SOS Children's Villages Worldwide, the organization's largest single funding contributor, voted to withdraw from the federation.

But the German Supervisory Board, which supervises the association as its guardian, overturned the decision and dismissed the three directors in February.

The corporation told the BBC that the directors had been sacked for "serious irregularities in the performance of their duties". The managers deny this, and are appealing the decision to dismiss them before the German courts.

Compensation was promised to the families but did not arrive

Before their dismissal, the three directors of the German Children's Villages organization had allocated a fund to provide "voluntary compensation" to Syrian victims, but, according to a number of leaked documents obtained by the BBC from multiple sources, no amounts have yet been disbursed from the fund to those affected.

The organization's spokeswoman said that it expressed its "readiness" to support those affected, but providing assistance depends on "legal and practical conditions that require coordination with the parties concerned."

As for the Syrian families that the BBC spoke to, they say that they have not yet received any communication from the organization, while they are still suffering from the effects of years of separation from their children.

Abdul Rahman Ghabis, whose story was documented by the BBC in its film “The Stolen Children of Syria,” lives today in Damascus with his family, but he still fears losing his loved ones again.

He says: "Whenever I call my wife or son and they don't answer, I panic. I drop everything and rush home for fear that something bad might happen to them."

The Assad regime's security forces took his son Muhammad from the hospital just four days after his birth, while his mother was sent to prison, even though she was still recovering from a caesarean section.

She added: "I was hoping that the foundation would apologize and provide us with support and compensation for the harm we suffered. But no one from the foundation contacted us, and they did not provide us with anything."