Originally published December 11 2011
International organ mafia coercing poor into donating kidneys to wealthy Israelis
by Jonathan Benson, staff writer
(NaturalNews) The demand for healthy, functioning body organs is high, as the number of organ patients far exceeds the number of willing and available organ donors. The result of this imbalance is an ever-growing black market for organs where international organ brokers, many of which are based in Israel, prey on the world's poorest by coercing them to give up their kidneys to primarily Israeli organ patients, or else face severe repercussions.
Lebanon's The Daily Star reports on several cases where victims of this illicit organ market were essentially forced to go through hell and give up their precious body parts in exchange for relative pittance. After responding to advertisements placed online, in newspapers and journals by this organ mafia, the victims were quickly apprehended and forced to follow through with the surgery. If they changed their mind and tried to back out, organ brokers threatened to kill both the victims and their families, in some cases.
"He said if I didn't go through with it, he would leave me in Ecuador and kill my family," said one victim, Aliaksei Yafimau, a satellite television installer from Belarus, to The Daily Star, concerning his experience with the organ mafia. "I am afraid for my life," he added.
Yafimau, age 30, had initially responded to an ad about donating his kidney in exchange for money, and thought he could use it to help his family get out of poverty. However, after being escorted around the world, held in hotel rooms for months, and essentially treated like a prisoner, Yafimau tried to get out of the shady deal. To prevent this, Yafimau's handlers threatened to kill him if he tried to escape or go to police.
Yafimau ended up complying with the surgery and, though he did receive the $10,000 he was promised -- brokers then resold individual kidneys like Yafimau's for up to 15 times that amount. He was severely traumatized by the whole experience, and is now suffering with health problems. Others like him have suffered even worse, though, and many did not even receive the compensation they were promised in the first place.
According to The Daily Star, the vast majority of organ patients who receive these "dirty" organs are Israelis, with some in the US and other places also receiving them. This international organ trafficking scheme appears to be headed primarily by Israelis as well, which includes the recent case of Levy Izhak Rosenbaum, an Israeli citizen, who pled guilty to conspiring with the organ mafia (http://www.naturalnews.com/034060_organ_traf...).
Sources for this article include:
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East...
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