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The Suffering of the Youth in the Tadamun Neighborhood: Forced Labor Under the Threat of Gunpoint
Just as humans were enslaved during World War II to dig tunnels and build railways, the youth of the Tadamun neighborhood have been forced to excavate under the threat of weapons.
Deep underground, without safety or a chance to return, these young men were exploited to build the National Defense barricades. Many lost their lives there, without any witness or grave, becoming victims of a regime that does not distinguish between murder and the enslavement of individuals.
Since the beginning of the Syrian revolution in 2012, the Tadamun area south of Damascus has formed one of the most significant front lines. As confrontations intensified, the role of the "National Defense" militias emerged, which adopted the neighborhood as a base for forced recruitment targeting its youth under the pretext of "assisting" in digging tunnels and preparing defensive barricades in the surrounding areas of Al-Zahira.
According to numerous testimonies, the militia would advance into Al-Zahira and abduct dozens of young men from their homes or the streets, claiming they would be participating in "temporary logistical work." However, the fates of many remained unknown after these operations, and those "missions" frequently ended either with death in the tunnels or arrest and enforced disappearance in the basements of security branches.
What is particularly disgraceful about these operations is the blatant sectarian discrimination: as "National Defense" personnel would check identity cards, individuals identified as being from the Sweida Governorate or coastal regions were immediately exempted from the task, while sons of Damascus and the south were forced into labor in excavation and fortification under conditions akin to slavery.
Among the victims was the young man Alaa Al-Din Al-Riyahi, who was kidnapped in 2014 while standing in line for bread in Tadamun. National Defense personnel took him under the pretext of requiring his help in fortification, and he has not returned home since that moment... he was martyred under the burden of forced labor!
This pattern of coercive exploitation continued until the end of battles in the Yarmouk Camp and Tadamun neighborhood in 2018.
