Saturday 30th May 2020
Press statement
The Forum for Development and Human Rights Dialogue condemns Turkish Authorities Silence towards selling human organs of Syrian Refugees and calls the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees for investigation
The Forum for Development and Human Rights Dialogue condemns Turkish Authorities silence regarding gangs of selling human organs among Syrian refugees in Turkey which has turned to be profitable based on pains of refugees who suffer from tragic conditions whether in refugee camps in Turkey or on the Greek borders, especially after the Turkish authorities have dismissed them towards the Greek borders in a severe violation of Convention of Refugees Rights issued in 1951 which obliges the host country to maintain and keep the security and safety of refugees and not to endanger their lives.
A number of Syrian refugees have talked with international media means that they had to sell their organs to fulfill their daily needs through brokers who exploit the issue of “organs donation” to turn it into profitable trade. They added that Turkey has a lot of human organs selling gangs and have pages on social media websites and platforms which give information about the price of selling a refugee’s kidney which may reach to about 10.000 $. In addition, they assured that the Turkish government disregards this kind of trade and ignores investigating it so the gangs work freely and these surgeries are done in Istanbul hospitals in front of the Turkish government.
On Facebook in Turkey there are groups where human organs are traded entitled “donate for organs for money” as some donators go through these pages and give their information such as nationality, blood type and their phone numbers. On the other hand, through these pages, human organs selling brokers give different amounts of money for each organ, the most of which are related to kidneys. One of those brokers wrote on one of these group pages “we offer insurance service for donators and facilitate hospital procedures”.
In its press release, the Forum for Development and Human Rights Dialogue assured that the issue of refugees who sell their organs in Turkey is not recent. In July 2019, the issue came of the headlines of Turkish newspapers when the police arrested a Syrian refugee in one of Istanbul hospitals before a surgery of selling his kidney for 10.000 $ in a deal done through social media pages and a broker. Yet, the Turkish security authorities have not taken a step for investigation or arresting these gangs which practicing their illegal trade freely in Turkey.
Hence the Forum for Development and Human Rights Dialogue calls the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees for investigating these incidents and other inhuman practices done by Turkish regime towards refugees emphasizing the necessity of condemning these inhuman practices towards refugees’ rights.
