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UNODC and partners launch toolkit for tackling underreported crime of human trafficking for organ removal

UNODC and partners launch toolkit for tackling underreported crime of human trafficking for organ removal
New York (Unit­ed States), 27 Octo­ber 2022 — All forms of human traf­fick­ing tend to be hid­den, but human traf­fick­ing for organ removal is espe­cial­ly so. Dri­ven large­ly by the glob­al organ short­age for eth­i­cal trans­plants, it is esti­mat­ed that only 10 per cent of glob­al needs are cov­ered. Crim­i­nal net­works prof­it from the des­per­a­tion of patients and coerce vul­ner­a­ble peo­ple into sell­ing organs.

Despite being list­ed as one of the forms of exploita­tion in the Unit­ed Nations Pro­to­col to Pre­vent, Sup­press and Pun­ish Traf­fick­ing in Per­sons, Espe­cial­ly Women and Chil­dren, to date human traf­fick­ing for organ removal has received scant atten­tion from anti-traf­fick­ing stake­hold­ers and the inter­na­tion­al community.

On Tues­day, the Unit­ed Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) launched a new Toolk­it on the Inves­ti­ga­tion and Pros­e­cu­tion of Traf­fick­ing in Per­sons for Organ Removal, designed to encour­age the proac­tive inves­ti­ga­tion of pos­si­ble cas­es or red flag indi­ca­tors. The toolk­it focus­es on orga­nized crim­i­nal net­works and the illic­it finan­cial flows stem­ming from them.

“For too long, traf­fick­ing for the removal of body organs has remained in the dark. Very few inves­ti­ga­tions exist, and even few­er pros­e­cu­tions take place. The new UNODC toolk­it will help train crim­i­nal jus­tice pro­fes­sion­als to iden­ti­fy vic­tims and bring traf­fick­ers to jus­tice,” said Ami­na Mohammed, Unit­ed Nations Deputy Sec­re­tary-Gen­er­al, at the launch via video message.

Address­ing how the demand-sup­ply issue plays into the hands of traf­fick­ers, Dr Tedros Ghe­breye­sus, Direc­tor-Gen­er­al of the World Health Orga­ni­za­tion, said, “The demand for trans­plants is out­pac­ing sup­ply. Weak dona­tion and trans­plan­ta­tion ser­vices in many coun­tries have led to ‘trans­plant tourism’ and human traf­fick­ing for organ removal. The police and judi­cial agen­cies must work with health author­i­ties to pre­vent and pros­e­cute traf­fick­ing in per­sons for organ removal.”

The broad spec­trum of actors involved in human traf­fick­ing for organ removal, from sur­geons and nurs­es to prepara­tors who can match patients with com­pat­i­ble donors, makes it a com­plex crime. The lack of exper­tise in iden­ti­fy­ing and inves­ti­gat­ing this com­plex crime results in it being per­sis­tent­ly under­re­port­ed. The few report­ed cas­es con­firm that this is a crime that spans the globe – all regions are affect­ed in some way as source, tran­sit or destination.

Not­ing that the new toolk­it is the first of its kind, UNODC Exec­u­tive Direc­tor Gha­da Waly said, “It will give crim­i­nal inves­ti­ga­tors and pros­e­cu­tors the pow­er to under­stand the method­ol­o­gy for estab­lish­ing a com­plex case of human traf­fick­ing for organ removal. Our ulti­mate aim is to iden­ti­fy poten­tial vic­tims before illic­it trans­plants take place.”

Case data con­firms that crim­i­nal net­works prof­it from the des­per­a­tion of the unem­ployed, refugees, asy­lum seek­ers and migrants to pres­sure them into sell­ing organs. Myths that this hap­pens in back alleys and that vic­tims are kid­napped still hin­der the iden­ti­fi­ca­tion of vic­tims. In actu­al fact, donor vic­tims are recruit­ed fol­low­ing a pat­tern sim­i­lar to in oth­er types of human traf­fick­ing. It can involve the promise of an exchange of small amounts of mon­ey, which some may nev­er actu­al­ly receive. Many vic­tims suf­fer post-oper­a­tive com­pli­ca­tions and health problems.

Greater atten­tion must be paid to strength­en­ing the reg­u­la­to­ry frame­work around organ trans­plan­ta­tion and the means by which so-called ‘buy­ers’ can engage in ‘trans­plant tourism’ to per­form illic­it trans­plants. By iden­ti­fy­ing which health­care sec­tors may be at a high­er risk of exploita­tion, we can bet­ter iden­ti­fy pos­si­ble vic­tims and pre­vent the crime.

Ambas­sador Sil­vio Gon­za­to, Deputy Head of the Del­e­ga­tion of the Euro­pean Union (EU), stressed that the issue of traf­fick­ing in human beings for organ removal is also of grave con­cern to the EU, as reflect­ed in the EU’s Strat­e­gy on Com­bat­ting Traf­fick­ing in Human Beings (2021–2025). He com­mend­ed UNODC for the part­ner­ships it built across all rel­e­vant stake­hold­ers to deliv­er this toolkit.

While the toolk­it is designed to strength­en the spe­cial­ized knowl­edge and capac­i­ty of crim­i­nal jus­tice actors, UNODC invites Mem­ber States, inter­na­tion­al part­ners and civ­il soci­ety to raise aware­ness of the issue and to take con­cert­ed and informed action.

To access the toolk­it, please click here.

Further information

The toolk­it has been devel­oped in the frame­work of UNODC’s Glob­al Action to Address and Pre­vent Traf­fick­ing in Per­sons and Migrant Smug­gling (GLO.ACT), fund­ed by the Euro­pean Union.

The launch event for the toolk­it can be viewed here.

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