The Federal Investigation Agency has started a probe into alleged kidnapping of children and smuggling of their body parts in Punjab. Earlier, Justice Saqib Nisar had taken a suo moto notice on July 26 after it was reported in media that more than 600 children were abducted from the province of Punjab, approximately 300 from Lahore alone in recent days. Secretive and ruthless, the traffickers controlling the organ trade thrive on the desperation of the poor and the sick.
No cadavers wanted. In the early 1980s a new form of human trafficking, a global trade in kidneys from living persons to supply the needs and demands of “transplant tourists” emerged in the Middle East, Latin America and Asia. Today, human trafficking for organs is a small, vibrant and extremely lucrative business that involves some 50 nations. The sites of illicit transplants have expanded within Asia, the Middle East, Central Asia, Eastern Europe, Central and Latin America, Europe and the United States. As for the recruitment of kidney sellers, they can be found in almost any nation. One crisis after another has supplied the market with countless vulnerable who fall like ripe, low-hanging fruit into the hands of human traffickers.
This is one ugly side of the organised crime feeding itself on missing, vulnerable children. For now, transplant tours are more usual. They can bring together actors from as many as four or five different countries, with a buyer from one place, brokers from two other countries, and mobile surgeons travelling from one nation to another where the kidney operations actually take place. In these instances, and in cases of private clinics, the participants appear and disappear quickly, with the guilty parties, including surgeons, taking with them any incriminating data. When the police finally arrive at the scene, they discover the bloody remains of a black-market clinic, with traces of forensic evidence, but the key players long since disappeared. The commonest scenario is of vulnerable individuals easily recruited and convinced to participate in the trade. The pressures are subtle, the coercion hidden. But illicit transplant trafficking schemes remain robust, exceedingly mobile, resilient and generally one step ahead of the game.
The transplant and organ procurement traffic is far-flung, sophisticated and extremely lucrative. Although trafficking in human organs is illegal in almost every nation, the specifics of the laws differ, making prosecutions that can involve three or more nations a judicial nightmare. In some countries it is illegal to sell a kidney but not to purchase one. In others it is illegal to buy and sell within the country but not to buy and/or sell abroad.
It is now possible to order an organ on the Internet. It is also possible, if you are poor, desperate, and willing to part with, say, a kidney, to broker a deal with traffickers. Recent research by the World Health Organisation (WHO) found that traffickers illegally obtain 7,000 kidneys each year around the world. Organ trafficking operates in various ways. Victims can be kidnapped and forced to give up an organ; some out of financial desperation agree to sell an organ, or they are duped into believing they need an operation and the organ is removed without their knowledge. Some victims are murdered to order if a large sum has been paid in advance. This illegal trade has risen to such a level that an estimated 10,000 black-market operations involving purchased human organs now take place annually, more than one every hour, according to WHO. Reportedly, organ trafficking accounts for five to 10 percent of all kidney transplants worldwide.
Children, especially those from poor backgrounds, or with disabilities are often targeted. And parts are not only used for transplants, there is a demand for illicit experimentation on whole cadavers by unethical scientists, as well as a market in hip and knee replacements. In addition to people being kidnapped and their organs stolen, some willingly sell their organs on the black market through local brokers, who contact regional and national syndicates to facilitate medical procedures and find buyers for kidneys and livers. Desperation, combined with a lack of law enforcement, enables brokers to entice impoverished families with offers of easy money.
In Punjab especially, parents are afraid to allow their children leave their sight. There is a huge demand and a market for body parts, especially eyes, hearts and kidneys belonging to children. Reports indicate that at least one million children have been kidnapped and killed in the past 20 years for organs. A kidney or eyes can fetch up to $10,000 and a heart could cost $50,000 or more. Estimates further indicate that money laundering in this deadly trade accounts for up to 10 percent of the world’s GDP, or as much five trillion trillion. As a result, the black market for children’s organs is expanding, and more and more children are kidnapped and killed. In a world where everything can be bought for a price, it seems as if children are the ones paying the ultimate price.
Human organ trafficking has become a particularly profitable international trade. International criminal organisations have identified the opportunity created by the large gap between organ supply and demand. The trade outlawed in all but a handful of countries is legal and booming in Pakistan. Frustrated by lengthy waiting lists at home and fearful of premature death, “transplant tourists” from Europe, the US and the Middle East are flocking to private hospitals in Pakistan and India for operations, which can be arranged in a matter days at a fraction of the cost in their native countries.
The writer is a professor of psychiatry and consultant forensic psychiatrist in the UK. He can be contacted at [email protected]