London woman disappears in Syria during visit to Assad regime territory, raising fears of abduction

A Syrian woman from London has disappeared upon her visit to western Syria which is under the control of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, sparking fears that she may have been abducted or detained.

According to local Syrian and opposition news outlets, Aline Ali – whose age has not been specified – traveled to Syria’s western Lattakia province this week and was on her way to an area named Wadi Qandil for “tourism” purposes and to reportedly visit family.

She has since suddenly disappeared, however, and contact with her was cut off without any prior notice. Ali is reportedly originally from the city of Homs but has been living in the British capital London for much of her life, making this trip apparently her first to Syria at least since her childhood.

انقطاع الاتصال بالشابة "ألين علي" المنحدرة من مدينة #حمص بعد قدومها إلى #سوريا للمرة الأولى في حياتها قادمة من #لندن، وذلك أثناء توجهها إلى وادي قنديل في #اللاذقية بغرض "السياحة"، بحسب صفحات محلية.#أورينت pic.twitter.com/z9GhOa3gu4

— Orient أورينت (@OrientNews) July 29, 2023

Her disappearance has raised significant concerns surrounding not only her safety, but also the nature of the incident. There are significant fears that she may have been kidnapped for the purpose of extorting ransom from her family, as is often the case with abductions of foreigners there.

There are also fears that she may have been intentionally detained by the Assad regime and its security forces, either similarly for ransom or some other unspecified reason.

Although the reports have not yet been confirmed and the nature or motive of her disappearance has not yet been determined, it is a common practice of the Syrian regime to arrest and detain foreigners who travel through its territory and who lack social or political significance, either to suppress potential political dissent or to extract ransoms.

Aline Ali’s reported disappearance comes at a time when countries in the Middle East region and beyond have increasingly been referring to Syria as “safe” due to the overall decline in the ongoing conflict.

Critics, however, highlight that returnees overwhelmingly face arrest, detention, and torture by regime security services upon their return to Syria, with Ali’s disappearance now being cited as the latest example.

READ: In Syria more than 154,000 people still detained or disappeared since 2011