The report was compiled by Sean Columb, a law lecturer at Liverpool University in Britain, who spent weeks in Egypt talking to brokers and donors. He found out that legislation is ambiguous regarding organ transplants in Egypt.
Purchasing a kidney is illegal, but paying for a transplant procedure is within the rules. Some people have paid up to $100,000 for a new organ, with the deals made in public places like cafes, the report said.
“(One pimp) used the services of sex workers as leverage when negotiating fees with both sellers and buyers. A night with a sex worker was offered as an extra inducement to sell.”
According to a report, “Human trafficking is a global problem and one of the world’s most shameful crimes, affecting the lives of millions of people around the world and robbing them of their dignity.”
The traffickers deceive women, men and children from all corners of the world and force them into exploitative situations on daily basis.
“While organ sales remain public knowledge, the process has become more hidden. Private clinics and analytic labs [where the majority of sellers are matched with buyers] have proliferated, making it increasingly difficult to monitor the treatment of organ recipients and organ sellers,” the report read.
When a transplant professional [surgeon] suspects that an organ has been donated illegally there is no legal duty to report this to the relevant authorities. Allegedly the doctors don't want to know anything. They take the money without question.
According to the report there are “numerous stakeholders involved in the organ trade, each with different roles, functions and identities that often overlap, i.e. transplant professionals, hospitals, brokers, service providers, law enforcement, etc.”
The report comes as support to earlier claims of horrifying organ trafficking practices. In July, the Times newspaper reported that African refugees were being killed for their organs in Egypt if they failed to pay their smugglers.
“The Egyptians come equipped to remove the organ and transport it in insulated bags,” people smuggler Nouredin Atta told the investigation following his detention, as cited by the Times.
Egypt is known to be a center for migrants and is a transit point for those who want to travel to Europe. Around one in 10 refugees arriving in Italy have sailed via Egypt since the start of 2016, the International Organization for Migration said. The rest went through Libya.
