Files leak: new evidence of organ trafficking

May 29, 2022

From Miriam Karmali, Freedom United

It’s shocking. Right now, victims are having their organs forcibly removed to be sold in illicit markets to unsuspecting buyers desperate for a transplant. Organ transplants can save lives but organs should be donated ethically and with complete transparency – even in desperation, trafficking is not the answer.

Forced organ harvesting and organ trafficking are horrific crimes. But we are seeing progress from governments taking a stand against organ trafficking. Now is the time to keep up the pressure. Sign the petition to say ‘NO’ to organ trafficking!

Sign the petition

Forced organ harvesting is a serious concern in China. Ethnic minorities rounded up by government crackdowns, including Uyghurs, are known to be victims of forced organ harvesting.[1]According to reports, the Chinese government’s state-sanctioned organ transplant trade is worth over $1 billion.

Some of the estimated 1.5 million detainees in prison camps in China have been killed to fuel this violent trade – many victims are still alive while vital organs, like hearts, are removed. Leaked police files expose how medical websites in China advertise organ transplants to foreigners, guaranteeing “ready-to-go” transplants.[2]

Call on your government to act against forced organ harvesting.

Serious allegations of state-sanctioned forced organ harvesting have been made against China’s government as far back as 2006, leading UN human rights experts to raise the issue with authorities last year. In March, 6,000+ of us in the Freedom United community wrote to UN experts urging them to keep holding the Chinese government accountable for forced organ harvesting.[3]

This week, the UN human rights chief, Michelle Bachelet, begins her long-awaited visit to China. Freedom United, Uyghur activists and human rights organizations are concerned that the UN visit will be extremely limited by authorities.

We are urging Bachelet to seek assurances she will be able to freely speak to Uyghurs in the region about allegations of forced labor and forced organ harvesting amongst other egregious human rights abuses,[4] and interrupt the visit if the Chinese authorities breach this agreement.

Members of the European Parliament have also called on the UN human rights chief to raise the issue of forced organ harvesting when visiting the Uyghur Region this week.[5]

Ziba Murat, a Uyghur living abroad, said:

“My family and many of my fellow Uighurs who are suffering from this long dragged family separation need to know that the High Commissioner is committed to shed light on this horror that we are living as we speak.”[6]

Dr. Enver Tothi shared how medical professionals in China such as himself are forced into taking part in the complex web that drives the forced organ harvesting trade in China.

“I started cutting down the middle and then he started struggling and I knew then that he was still alive,” the father-of-three said, “but he was too weak to resist me.”

“I saw there was blood coming out of the cut which means the heart was still pumping,” he added. He was ordered to remove the liver and both kidneys, sew the body back up, and “remember that today nothing happened.”[7]

Over 31,000 in the Freedom United community have signed the petition and written to MPs, calling on the U.K. to act against organ transplant ‘tourism’ – and the U.K. finally listened!

Earlier this month, the U.K.’s Health and Care Bill passed into law, a new piece of legislation to prevent British nationals from traveling abroad to receive an organ transplant to prevent people from being unwittingly complicit in organ trafficking.[8]

This win in the U.K. is an encouraging step forward. Now, we want to see more governments around the world act against organ transplant ‘tourism’, known to be a driver of the illicit organ trade.

National governments have a responsibility to prevent their own citizens from receiving transplants abroad where organ trafficking persists and where victims include political prisoners, ethnic minorities, and persecuted religious communities.

Sign the petition today to ask governments to act against organ trafficking!

In solidarity,

Miriam and the team supporting the Freedom United community