When a body organ 'agent' offered to buy his kidney, destitute and desperate Bangladeshi Mohsin Abdul's only thought was: “I could live with one kidney and having two of these will not help me ease my debts".
It’s a scenario that has taken many forms. It could be something we would have first heard many years ago from a friend who’d heard it from another friend, whose mother swore it happened to a distant cousin.
In that version, the victim — we’ll call him Bill — was on a business trip alone somewhere in Europe, and went out to a bar one night to have a cocktail. He wakes up the next morning in an unfamiliar hotel room with severe pain in his lower back.
He is taken to the emergency room, where doctors determined that Bill, unknowingly had undergone major surgery the night before. One of his kidneys had been removed, cleanly and professionally.
This is a chilling tale. With minor variations, the same story has been retold thousands of times by different people in many varied locales. And it’s always based on third-, fourth-, or fifth-hand information.
But while the ‘tale’ may be an urban legend for the rest of us, for 33-year-old Mohsin Abdul, it’s his story.
Mohsin had his kidney harvested almost 10 years ago when he was a 24-year-old farmhand in an obscure Dhaka village called Joypurhat in Bangladesh.
Joypurhat was featured in a report on illegal organ trafficking published by Bernama Online in September last year.
The report named Malaysia as one of the countries implicated in an investigation by Bangladeshi police into an international syndicate allegedly involved in the illegal kidney trade across several countries in Asia.
The news article also said that investigators were focusing on a reputable international hospital with a presence in countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia and India.
Initial investigations had revealed that donors from remote villages in Bangladesh had been flown to the various destinations to have their kidneys harvested.
Organ ‘agent’ offered plenty
Joypurhat Superintendent of Police, Mozammel Haque, told Bernama Online that each victim was paid between US$2,000 (RM6,000) and US$3,000 (RM9,000) for a kidney, but could not confirm the organ’s eventual black market price.
He added that at least seven cases involving the illegal sale of kidneys had been reported in the Joypurhat area in northern Bangladesh so far.
This is also where Mohsin is from and where he earned meagre wages toiling the land as a Bangladeshi farmer. Adding to this, was his struggle with repaying a series of loans worth about RM2,500.
This he said, was what made him take the advice of an acquaintance from a nearby village to sell one of his kidneys and get in return at least 130,000 takas (approx US$1,728 or RM5300).
He was told that there was an “agent” who was looking to buy kidneys and that he would be taken to a country called Malaysia where the surgery would be performed. Mohsin was informed that he would be paid half the amount before the surgery and the balance would be given upon his return to Bangladesh.
“I thought to myself that I could live with one kidney and having two of these will not help me ease my debts. With the amount they were going to pay me for one of my kidneys, there was so much I could do.
“To be honest, I didn’t spend a lot of time thinking about it because I was convinced that this was a once a in a lifetime offer.
“I was actually afraid that the agent would go away and I would never see him again. I was desperate. Anyone who has ever been destitute and desperate will know what I’m talking about,” he said with unflinching frankness.
Kidney harvested in Malaysia
When asked if he was aware that it’s illegal to sell human organs and that violation of the law can lead to jail terms of three to seven years and fine of 300,000 takas (approx RM11, 200), Mohsin shakes his head in the negative.
So Mohsin flew to Malaysia, was picked up from the airport and brought to a house, which had a room converted into a surgery area. He remembers waking up the next day and being given RM500.
He was told that in three days, someone would come over with the plane ticket and take him to the airport where he would also be given the balance of the money owed for his kidney.
In three days, someone did come, but there was no plane ticket and most certainly no ride to the airport. He was left outside a 24-hour convenient store in an area Mohsin would later come to know as Chow Kit.
He was never paid the balance of what he was promised for his kidney.
Today, he works at a carwash and in a gas station.He also does other odd jobs to save up for a plane ticket home. It was one full year after his kidney’s were harvested when he was able to contact his family in Dakka.
A decade on, and his dreams of home are as vivid as ever, but the same is unfortunately true of the harrowing experience he encountered.
We are now in a tiny flat he shares with 15 other Bangladeshi immigrants, and the heat is stifling more so because all his flatmates are in for the day.
Mohsin winces at the noise. It’s on days like this, he said, that he misses home even more and said that if all goes according to plan, he might be able to go home in a year.
His friend Abdal Musiri tells him, in laboured tones, that he will do this.
US$50 million industry
Abdal was also a victim of a harvested organ and with all he has encountered, Mohsin considers his fate better than Abdal’s.
Formerly a factory worker, Abdal sold part of his liver to a wealthy recipient in Kuala Lumpur. Abdal admits that back then, he did not know what a liver was. But the fact the broker told him the sale would make him rich was all the convincing Abdal needed.
After the transplant Abdal received only part of the money he was promised and is now too sick to work, walk long distances or even breathe property. He thinks often of killing himself, Mohsin said.
The illegal world of human organs trade was valued at around US$50 million in 2008, and involves a range of source countries.
Due to extreme poverty and high profits, illegal organ transplantations have risen in India and Pakistan over the past two decades.
The people selling their organs are exploited by unethical brokers and recipients who are often Bangladeshi-born foreign nationals living in places such as the United States, Europe and the Middle East.
Because organ-selling is illegal, the brokers forge documents indicating the recipient and seller are related and claim the act is a family donation.
Even so, like so many urban legends fueled by irrational fear and ignorance, the organ theft story continues to spread from person to person and place to place, changing and adapting to its surroundings over time like a very savvy and smart mutating virus.
And unlike many other urban legends, unfortunately, this one has put real people’s lives at risk.
It’s a scenario that has taken many forms. It could be something we would have first heard many years ago from a friend who’d heard it from another friend, whose mother swore it happened to a distant cousin.In that version, the victim — we’ll call him Bill — was on a business trip alone somewhere in Europe, and went out to a bar one night to have a cocktail. He wakes up the next morning in an unfamiliar hotel room with severe pain in his lower back.
He is taken to the emergency room, where doctors determined that Bill, unknowingly had undergone major surgery the night before. One of his kidneys had been removed, cleanly and professionally.
This is a chilling tale. With minor variations, the same story has been retold thousands of times by different people in many varied locales. And it’s always based on third-, fourth-, or fifth-hand information.
But while the ‘tale’ may be an urban legend for the rest of us, for 33-year-old Mohsin Abdul, it’s his story.
Mohsin had his kidney harvested almost 10 years ago when he was a 24-year-old farmhand in an obscure Dhaka village called Joypurhat in Bangladesh.
Joypurhat was featured in a report on illegal organ trafficking published by Bernama Online in September last year.
The report named Malaysia as one of the countries implicated in an investigation by Bangladeshi police into an international syndicate allegedly involved in the illegal kidney trade across several countries in Asia.
The news article also said that investigators were focusing on a reputable international hospital with a presence in countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia and India.
Initial investigations had revealed that donors from remote villages in Bangladesh had been flown to the various destinations to have their kidneys harvested.
Organ ‘agent’ offered plenty
Joypurhat Superintendent of Police, Mozammel Haque, told Bernama Online that each victim was paid between US$2,000 (RM6,000) and US$3,000 (RM9,000) for a kidney, but could not confirm the organ’s eventual black market price.
He added that at least seven cases involving the illegal sale of kidneys had been reported in the Joypurhat area in northern Bangladesh so far.
This is also where Mohsin is from and where he earned meagre wages toiling the land as a Bangladeshi farmer. Adding to this, was his struggle with repaying a series of loans worth about RM2,500.
This he said, was what made him take the advice of an acquaintance from a nearby village to sell one of his kidneys and get in return at least 130,000 takas (approx US$1,728 or RM5300).
He was told that there was an “agent” who was looking to buy kidneys and that he would be taken to a country called Malaysia where the surgery would be performed. Mohsin was informed that he would be paid half the amount before the surgery and the balance would be given upon his return to Bangladesh.
“I thought to myself that I could live with one kidney and having two of these will not help me ease my debts. With the amount they were going to pay me for one of my kidneys, there was so much I could do.
“To be honest, I didn’t spend a lot of time thinking about it because I was convinced that this was a once a in a lifetime offer.
“I was actually afraid that the agent would go away and I would never see him again. I was desperate. Anyone who has ever been destitute and desperate will know what I’m talking about,” he said with unflinching frankness.
Kidney harvested in Malaysia
When asked if he was aware that it’s illegal to sell human organs and that violation of the law can lead to jail terms of three to seven years and fine of 300,000 takas (approx RM11, 200), Mohsin shakes his head in the negative.
So Mohsin flew to Malaysia, was picked up from the airport and brought to a house, which had a room converted into a surgery area. He remembers waking up the next day and being given RM500.
He was told that in three days, someone would come over with the plane ticket and take him to the airport where he would also be given the balance of the money owed for his kidney.In three days, someone did come, but there was no plane ticket and most certainly no ride to the airport. He was left outside a 24-hour convenient store in an area Mohsin would later come to know as Chow Kit.
He was never paid the balance of what he was promised for his kidney.
Today, he works at a carwash and in a gas station.He also does other odd jobs to save up for a plane ticket home. It was one full year after his kidney’s were harvested when he was able to contact his family in Dakka.
A decade on, and his dreams of home are as vivid as ever, but the same is unfortunately true of the harrowing experience he encountered.
We are now in a tiny flat he shares with 15 other Bangladeshi immigrants, and the heat is stifling more so because all his flatmates are in for the day.
Mohsin winces at the noise. It’s on days like this, he said, that he misses home even more and said that if all goes according to plan, he might be able to go home in a year.
His friend Abdal Musiri tells him, in laboured tones, that he will do this.
US$50 million industry
Abdal was also a victim of a harvested organ and with all he has encountered, Mohsin considers his fate better than Abdal’s.
Formerly a factory worker, Abdal sold part of his liver to a wealthy recipient in Kuala Lumpur. Abdal admits that back then, he did not know what a liver was. But the fact the broker told him the sale would make him rich was all the convincing Abdal needed.
After the transplant Abdal received only part of the money he was promised and is now too sick to work, walk long distances or even breathe property. He thinks often of killing himself, Mohsin said.
The illegal world of human organs trade was valued at around US$50 million in 2008, and involves a range of source countries.
Due to extreme poverty and high profits, illegal organ transplantations have risen in India and Pakistan over the past two decades.
The people selling their organs are exploited by unethical brokers and recipients who are often Bangladeshi-born foreign nationals living in places such as the United States, Europe and the Middle East.
Because organ-selling is illegal, the brokers forge documents indicating the recipient and seller are related and claim the act is a family donation.
Even so, like so many urban legends fueled by irrational fear and ignorance, the organ theft story continues to spread from person to person and place to place, changing and adapting to its surroundings over time like a very savvy and smart mutating virus.
And unlike many other urban legends, unfortunately, this one has put real people’s lives at risk.
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