Some 605 Palestinian refugees have been tortured to death in Syrian regime prisons since the civil war began in 2011, the Action Group for Palestinians in Syria said in a report yesterday.

The group said it has documented the death of as many as 80 refugees under torture in 2018 compared with 13 refugees documented in 2017, and 77 victims were identified through images leaked from Syrian regime prisons.

According to the group, the Syrian regime’s security services have handed over the victims’ personal documents to their families, however, the families refuse to reveal the victims’ names for fear of retaliation by the Syrian security forces.

The group said the victims include doctors, engineers, university students, artists, media professionals and volunteers.

The detention of 1,757 Palestinian refugees in Syrian prisons, including children, women, elderly people and infants in the arms of their mothers whose fate is unknown, has also been documented.

According to testimonies obtained from former detainees, the Palestinian refugees in the Syrian security branches are subjected to all forms of torture and humiliation including beating, electrocution and rape.

READ: Syria regime forcibly disappears more than 1,700 Palestine refugees