PARIS: The UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances has launched an inquiry into the whereabouts and fate of a Syrian man who was deported by Austria in early July and has not been in contact with his legal team or family since.
Austria has been asked by the UN committee “to make formal diplomatic representations to the Syrian authorities to determine whether the (person) is alive, where he is being held, in what conditions, and (to) request diplomatic guarantees to ensure his safety and humane treatment,” according to a letter dated Aug. 6 from the UN Petitions Section.
The 32-year-old man was the first Syrian national expelled from EU territory since the fall of President Bashar Assad.
Millions of Syrians fled Assad’s bloody crackdown on opponents in the country’s 2011-24 civil war.
EU countries took in many of the refugees, but some are now looking into repatriations, citing the changed political situation in the Syrian Arab Republic, though sectarian violence has continued in some areas.
