Survival experiences of Sednaya Prison survivors: A qualitative study in Türkiye

Abstract

This study explores the experiences of 14 individuals arrested in Syria after 2012 for anti-regime activities and subjected to systematic torture at the Sednaya Prison. Drawing on purposive sampling and a phenomenological approach, the analysis foregrounds survivors’ motivations for enduring detention and their post-release trajectories. The findings reveal that survival under conditions of extreme dehumanization was sustained through overlapping meaning-making practices rooted in religious belief, familial responsibility, intra-prison solidarity, and political witnessing. Following their release, the participants continued to navigate enduring trauma, war-related displacement, and the structural challenges of rebuilding their lives in host countries, marked by economic precarity and social exclusion. Interactions with civil society organizations emerged as a cross-cutting resource that mediated both survival and post-release adaptation by supporting their identity reconstruction, social reconnection, and access to rights. By centering survivors’ lived experiences, this study offers rare empirical insight into the afterlives of torture in Sednaya, contributes to trauma and forced migration scholarship, and underscores the need for sustained accountability and survivor-centered responses to mass human rights violations in Syria.