1.6. Prison conditions and treatment of detainees

Upon taking control, the transitional government released thousands of detainees from detention facilities,177 at times without due process or oversight.178 Following Assad’s ousting, detention centres and prisons were left largely unprotected,179 with many official records containing critical information looted or destroyed.180 Although, according to an April 2025 report by Global Protection Cluster (GPC), torture practices in prisons have ‘largely ceased’, poor detention conditions persisted, with overcrowded and unsanitary makeshift facilities replacing looted or abandoned Assad-era prisons.181

The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) documented at least 1 108 cases of arbitrary arrest or detention during 2025, including 73 children and 26 women, by different actors, including Syrian transitional government forces, and other armed opposition factions.182 Sources indicated that most arrest and detention cases were linked to security operations by the transitional government security forces, particularly in Latakia, Homs, Hama and Damascus governorates.183 According to the UNCOI, Alawite men and boys were arbitrarily arrested amid violence during these operations and were detained both in official and unofficial detention facilities.184 In some of the cases, arrests and detention by Internal Security Forces (ISF) were linked to financial motivations, including ransom extortion, as well as seizure and confiscation of property.185 In the first quarter of 2026, at least 210 cases of arbitrary arrest or detention, including 11 children and 3 women were recorded by SNHR.186

The UNCOI noted that places of detention were ‘severely overcrowded’.187 According to the same source, several cases in which detainees were held incommunicado were recorded.188 Torture and ill-treatment practices were documented in detention facilities,189 as well as in makeshift facilities and checkpoints in Aleppo, Dar’a, Homs, Hama, Latakia, Tartous, Idlib, and Rural Damascus governorates.190 The majority of these documented cases involved Alawite men, who were reportedly later released.191 Several cases of deaths in detention were also reported during 2025. The transitional government announced investigations into four of the cases and confirmed 21 cases in Homs, Hama and Damascus central prisons, attributing them to natural causes.192