A human rights group has come out saying the Syrian regime is detaining 2,918 protestors completely in secret, The Guardian reports. The government is performing sweeps of the country to detain protestors and detractors who have spoken out against the government, which has been in power for 42 years. According the Avaaz, the regime has made 2,918 protestors "forcibly disappear," holding them against their will without acknowledging to their families that they have been detained. Another 12,617 people are being detained openly and acknowledged by the government. The group found out about the disappearances through "a network of activists and researchers who have provided information to Avaaz." The Guardian spoke to a girl whose father disappeared on July 2. 

"My father used to talk a lot," she said, declining to reveal her name. "He talked against the government in a political way. We used to tell him to stay quiet but he wouldn't listen.

"They came to a neighbour's fast food shop and they took him. We haven't heard anything from him since. They don't even acknowledge that they have him."

Protests in Syria have been occurring for just over four months. The number of Syrians who have disappeared since the protests starts works out to be about one every hour, according to Abaaz. If you factor in the total number of Syrains detained, in secrecy or not, it works out to about one Syrian every fifteen minutes.

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