Baladi News (Private)
After five years of war by Assad’s regime forces against their own people, young men in Sweida city found themselves between a rock and a hard place; On the one hand, they are suffering from very difficult living conditions due to the continued war, and on the other hand, they are seeking ways to avoid compulsory recruitment in the regime Army.
Amid such conditions, some regime forces agents rumored that a new route for smuggling people was opened. The route starts in the eastern desert of Sweida and ends either in Turkey or in Jordan. However, it turned out that such route was merely a trap. Activists confirmed the loss of over 18 young men who took this route, indicating that all of them are draft evaders who refused to achieve compulsory and reserve duties.
Anonymous informed sources in the city clarified that those smugglers accept little amounts of money for safely passing people through the regime forces checkpoints to a certain location outside the city, where other smugglers take their remaining money and take them to unknown places. The source indicated that these smugglers are previously convicted criminals who have relations with officers and heads of security departments. The young men of Sweida are not the only victims of these regime-fostered smugglers; People from Daraa were also seduced to take the same route, but they were also lost, which emphasizes that the regime forces are involved in systematic forced absence of those civilians.
Sweida Coordination Committee regarded practicing human trafficking by the Syrian regime forces as a serious development, especially after peaceful demonstrations broke out in the city and its countryside.
Recently, a video went viral in social media website, showing Assad’s forces militants arrest a young man by force downtown Sweida, which was an unprecedented behavior in the area.