Arbitrarily dismissed under Assad, Idlib public employees await reinstatement

IDLIB — Taher al-Amin, 53, wants his job back. When Assad fell last December, this goal seemed possible for the first time in years—not only for him, but for thousands of former government employees arbitrarily dismissed from their positions by the former regime.

In mid-April Syria’s Ministry of Administrative Development—the agency managing the country’s public sector workforce—announced the reinstatement of nearly 15,000 Ministry of Education employees who were arbitrarily dismissed for participating in the Syrian revolution. Others, including al-Amin, are still waiting. 

After seven months and several trips to his former workplace—the Technical Services Directorate in Idlib—he is no closer to being reinstated. 

“Every time, they tell me there is nothing new regarding the return of employees,” al-Amin told Syria Direct. “Last time, they said my name is not [on the list of those invited for a reinstatement interview]. I have to wait until my name pops up on the Ministry of [Administrative] Development’s lists.”

Al-Amin is one of around 400 former employees of the Ministry of Local Administration and Environment in Idlib awaiting reinstatement, according to a list Syria Direct obtained from a private coordination group of dismissed public sector workers in the province. This ministry alone has 5,622 arbitrarily dismissed employees across Syria. 

Al-Amin never imagined he would one day find himself at the door of the Technical Services Directorate, work documents in hand, pleading to return to it. He spent more than 14 years on the other side of the door, first hired as a clerk in 2001, then transferred to garages servicing government vehicles and finally appointed as a fuel accountant for Idlib province.

A folder containing Taher al-Amin’s work documents from the Ministry of Local Administration’s Technical Services Directorate, which he held on to after Idlib city came under opposition control in 2015 (Iman Sarhan/Syria Direct)

“Under the most difficult circumstances, I never thought about quitting. I believe stability starts with a salary, no matter how small,” al-Amin said. “I was happy with my job, committed to it.” 

After opposition forces took control of Idlib city from the Assad regime in March 2015, al-Amin made the 100-kilometer journey south to regime-controlled Hama city three times to receive his monthly salary. The last time, when he entered the office of the technical services director, “he asked me to wait for the security employee to come question me,” he recalled. “I decided to leave immediately. I took the first taxi I saw to the Hama bus station, and returned to Idlib.” That was the last time al-Amin entered regime-controlled areas. 

With that, the regime government deemed him to have resigned. Under Article 135 of Syria’s 2004 Public Employment Law, workers are considered to have resigned if they leave work without authorization and do not return within 15 days. Leaving state institutions without submitting a formal registration is a criminal offense under the country’s penal code, punishable by imprisonment and fines. 

For the past decade, al-Amin has floated between various daily wage jobs, none matching his experience or offering basic job security. “I’m a state employee. I don’t have a business or any other skill,” he said. “All I hope for is to return to my job, so I can be useful.”

‘Many promises’

Ibrahim Ahmad al-Asaad joined the Syrian revolution early on, hiding his face with a mask at protests since he worked in the finance department of the state-run General Establishment for Bakeries under the then-Ministry of Internal Trade and Consumer Protection. 

He continued working and receiving a salary until 2015, overseeing payroll for 14 bakeries in Idlib province. When opposition forces took control of his city and state employees could only receive their salaries in Hama province, at first he did not dare to make the journey, he told Syria Direct. 

A year later, al-Asaad was struggling to get by and decided to take the risk. He went to Hama, where he received “six or seven months’ wages at once,” but never returned. It was too dangerous, especially after he learned he was wanted and considered to have resigned without permission, like thousands of other state employees in opposition areas. 

The same year, al-Asaad went to the Idlib bakeries office, “which had moved its headquarters to the mills,” and offered his extensive experience in accounting and payroll distribution. An employee at the directorate, then under opposition administration, told him “we have our group, go to the regime,” he recalled. The comment stung, after he had already paid the price for siding with the revolution by losing his job. 

With that door closed, al-Asaad rented a small shop near his house, where he has worked ever since to make ends meet and help his family “survive with dignity,” he said. 

In December 2024, after the regime fell, employees at the Hama bakeries branch sent al-Asaad a link to fill out a “reconnection” form. He rushed to send it in, but has been waiting ever since. 

Maher Haidan is also waiting. Through “displacement, bombardment and fear, I still stayed and didn’t move to Hama,” where he could have continued his work at the Technical Services Directorate, he told Syria Direct. 

Some of his colleagues did relocate from Idlib, and kept their jobs while working at the directorate in Hama. Those colleagues later told him he was wanted for reserves service and that if he did not report he would be fired. He said “let them dismiss me, God is my support,” he recalled. 

It was not the first time Haidan felt wronged by the Assad regime. He joined the directorate in 2013 with a middle school diploma. Later that year, after obtaining his high school diploma, he should have been granted a “job status adjustment.” Instead, “the minister refused to adjust my status, despite being entitled to it.” 

When the regime fell, Haidan had hope once more that he could regain the job he lost “arbitrarily” nearly a decade earlier. He began coordinating with other dismissed service employees in Idlib, creating a WhatsApp group that today has more than 700 members, he said. 

In that group, he received a link from the directorate for those who wanted to return to their positions—the same form that al-Asaad filled out. A month and a half later, “they called me and invited me for an interview,” he said. “The questions were basic, and they told me ‘we’ll inform you later.’ So far, nobody has contacted me.” 

Rather than simply waiting, Haidan has been trying to advocate for other dismissed employees in his position. His efforts have taken him to the offices of the governor, public relations, business management and even the minister of local administration. He has received “many promises, and hope, but nothing on the ground so far.” 

“We’ve gotten older, we have children and responsibilities. We did not join the old regime, so we should have been the first to return to their jobs,” Haidan said. He called on “decision makers—whether the governor or the minister—to consider our situation, because we are tired.” 

No official clarification

After spending five years as a refugee abroad, Iman Numan, 41, returned to Idlib city when the regime fell. A mother of three, Numan was also arbitrarily dismissed from the Idlib technical services directorate years ago. 

Numan studied at the Institute of Technical Observers in Aleppo city, a state-run institute that offers a direct pipeline to government employment. Immediately after graduating, she was hired under an automatically renewed yearly contract before being permanently hired after 10 years of work, she told Syria Direct. 

After returning to Idlib and hearing official pledges by the new Syrian administration to look into the files of arbitrarily dismissed employees, she submitted an application to the directorate, attaching the necessary documents and information. 

“They gave me an appointment for an interview” in late May, during which they asked for “my personal information, [educational] certificate, the department I worked in and what my job was,” she said. They “asked me if I wanted to continue my work, and I said I did.” 

Since then, Numan has been in the dark, waiting for any information about “how to return to work, and when I’ll be informed of any updates,” she said. 

Following several attempts by Syria Direct to obtain a statement from authorities handling the cases of dismissed employees in Idlib, an official at the Ministry of Local Administration said the new government “attaches special importance to the file of employees cut off from work during the war years, and is treating it as a sensitive file with humanitarian and national dimensions.” He said there are “specialized committees tasked with evaluating each case individually.” 

The ministry “has opened official and unofficial channels of communication, including announcing a link to register in partnership with the Ministry of Administrative Development and forming sub-committees to interview those concerned,” he added 

He asked employees who were arbitrarily dismissed or fired due to their involvement in the revolution to submit a written request explaining the reason for their absence—if they have not already registered through the ministry’s link for submitting information. A specialized committee would review the requests to assess the possibility of a settlement or reinstatement, he added. 

“The ministry’s priority is to reinstate those who were dismissed and restore their rights,” the official said. “Proposals are being considered to financially compensate them” for the past year, he added. “The return of qualified former personnel is a key pillar to fill the significant shortage of qualified staff. Reinstating this group is not only a moral obligation but an administrative necessity in the reconstruction phase.”

Numan’s husband, an Arabic teacher, was among the thousands of Ministry of Education employees reinstated in April, but for now she is still waiting. 

Al-Amin is in the same boat. “I know the current government inherited a difficult and fractured situation, but we hope our right to work—and later retire—will not be lost,” he said. 

This report was originally published in Arabic and translated into English by Mateo Nelson.