Panorama 2020 E35
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CreativityTranscript
00:00Tonight on Panorama, the illegal sale of human organs.
00:09I found myself in a room with blood everywhere.
00:17The horrifying trade in human flesh.
00:20They literally are seeing that person in terms of different cuts of meat.
00:24It really is quite literally treating a human being like that.
00:28We're on the trail of the organ traffickers.
00:32We need to be careful. We don't know what he's capable of.
00:36We track down the criminals who profit.
00:39I'm going to check that camera and if something isn't right I will delete everything on it.
00:45And the victims whose bodies are butchered.
00:49I made this mistake and I don't want another girl to make it.
00:57Panorama
01:13An ancient city at the heart of a vile trade.
01:17Cairo
01:22Cairo hides a terrible industry.
01:25The sale of human body parts.
01:31There's a shortage of transplant organs around the world.
01:35Some of those who need a kidney come here, where the organs are harvested from the poor.
01:43The victims are mainly migrants and refugees who pass through Egypt on their way to Europe.
01:52It's illegal. It's unethical. It is immoral.
01:56They are exploited for their organs.
01:58Some of them may receive a very small financial remuneration.
02:01Some of them will receive absolutely nothing at all.
02:04And this is exploitation and it's a form of modern day slavery.
02:12So how can we access this criminal underworld?
02:18Well, Sean Collum is an academic who's travelled to Egypt many times to meet those who've sold their kidneys.
02:28So these are all notes from different conversations.
02:34Couldn't find regular work.
02:36And someone approached him, a broker approached him, promised him a lot of money.
02:415,000 euros if he sold his kidney.
02:44And he agreed to sell his kidney.
02:47This particular woman, she was only 22 years of age.
02:51This was particularly extreme.
02:54She was beaten and blindfolded and physically coerced into giving up her kidney.
03:05When you're doing interviews, you're in the moment sometimes.
03:08And I think, for me, it really hits me when I get back.
03:14I wish I could do more to help.
03:31Sean has agreed to show us the illegal trade.
03:35He's travelled to Egypt with our producer, Laura.
03:39It's a risky job.
03:41The government here locks up critical journalists.
03:44So the only option is to pretend to be tourists.
03:48But it's difficult, because the people we need to talk to live far from the tourist sites.
03:56They are migrants from neighbouring countries like Sudan, with no money and no rights.
04:03Like Ahmad.
04:05He's a journalist.
04:07He's a journalist.
04:09He's a journalist.
04:11He's a journalist.
04:13He's a journalist.
04:15He's a journalist.
04:17He's a journalist.
04:21Life is too hard.
04:24I didn't come here as a tourist.
04:28Most people come to Egypt to work.
04:31I have younger siblings who've forgotten about school.
04:35They go to work.
04:36Life there is so tough.
04:47So this is what Ahmad did.
04:50The terrible scar that marks out the victim.
04:55Ahmad sold a kidney for $4,000.
04:59He was told to say he was donating his kidney to a relative for free.
05:08We went to the Ministry of Health to give them my consent.
05:13They don't care if you lie.
05:14They asked me about my relationship with that man.
05:17I told them he's my relative.
05:20They wrote that and asked me to sign and give my fingerprints.
05:24So I did.
05:35Ahmad was paid for his kidney.
05:38He gave the money to people smugglers to take him to Europe.
05:41But they ripped him off.
05:43Now he's lost everything.
05:51I just wanted to make my family happy and my daughter.
05:56I only have one daughter and I didn't see her for about five or six years.
06:02I would sell my heart, my eyes, anything to make my family happy.
06:15Ahmad could pay the price for the rest of his life.
06:19Removing a kidney without proper medical support
06:23would cost him his life.
06:25Ahmad could pay the price for the rest of his life.
06:28Removing a kidney without proper medical supervision
06:32can have serious implications.
06:35It's a very, very risky business.
06:37Whether that risk is short term or whether that risk is long term,
06:41it's a very, very risky business and you really are gambling with your life.
06:45You could die in the short term or you could die many years later.
06:49But the important thing is that that act of donation
06:52may have taken life years away from that individual
06:53and we simply just don't know how many years of life
06:56are taken away from some of these individuals.
07:07There are five million migrants and refugees in Egypt.
07:12Most are not allowed to work, so they're vulnerable to the organ traffickers.
07:20I think it's very hard for people in the UK
07:21often to imagine the desperation that some people,
07:25particularly in countries in war zones, for example,
07:28or in countries where there's serious famine.
07:30There's nothing really that we've experienced on those levels,
07:33so we don't really know the...
07:35It's very hard for us sometimes to actually understand
07:38why these individuals have been literally forced to make these choices
07:41that we find very hard to imagine.
07:51The sale of human organs is banned in Egypt and many other countries,
07:56but illegal transplants still take place
07:59in hospitals and clinics around the world.
08:03Victims are sometimes tricked into having a kidney removed.
08:09They get promises that they will recover fast.
08:12In some cases, the victims are convinced by the traffickers
08:18that their kidneys will grow again.
08:20They are deceived with these promises, attracted by some amount of money,
08:28and then they are left dying, of course,
08:32after the transplant, or their health will be damaged for life.
08:38It's hard to get to the victims.
08:41They could be arrested just for talking about their role in illegal operations.
08:47We're using safe houses and protecting their identities.
08:56Some never get the money they need.
08:59Some are forced to pay for the surgery.
09:02Some never get the money they're promised.
09:07Others have organs removed against their will.
09:13Asha wanted to get to Europe with her children and her sister's family.
09:18A people smuggler agreed to do it
09:21and said she could pay him back when she was there.
09:27He told me it's so easy.
09:28You can work and pay the money back.
09:39We didn't have any money.
09:41He said he'd do everything for us.
09:51He took me to Alexandria, me and my family.
09:55He took me to Alexandria, me and my sister with her daughters and her husband.
10:17They were told the boat to Europe was leaving the next day, but that never happened.
10:22Asha thinks she was drugged.
10:25When she woke up, her kidney had been removed.
10:38I found myself in a room with blood everywhere.
10:45The door was locked and I started kicking it.
10:53Then I called the police and they came and got me.
10:57They took me to the hospital.
11:06There they told me that my kidney had been removed and they put a bandage on it.
11:12I couldn't sleep.
11:14The wound was still open, so there in the hospital they stitched it up properly.
11:18The wound was still open, so there in the hospital they stitched it up properly.
11:34Asha's kidney was stolen.
11:37She never saw her sister or her sister's family again.
11:43She thinks they were murdered for their organs.
11:49We don't know where they are.
11:54I wish they just took a kidney from each of them and left them alive.
11:58I wish they just took a kidney from each of them and left them alive.
12:02But they took them all.
12:08There is no government to protect you.
12:11There is no government to protect you.
12:14I thought about suicide, but who would I leave my kids with?
12:29We've no evidence that Asha's relatives were killed, but it does happen.
12:36A dead individual will be far more lucrative than an individual who is alive
12:41because an individual who has passed away can facilitate up to nine transplants
12:48and every organ comes with a price, so you will make a lot more money if you have someone who has died.
12:54I have no doubt that there will be some areas in the world where people are killed for their organs
13:00simply because they will make more money from it.
13:03In Egypt, the bodies of migrants and refugees have reportedly been discovered in the desert with their organs missing.
13:14We have pictures that appear to show how they were cut up for body parts.
13:22Most are too upsetting to show.
13:33That's what's so terrifying about human trafficking.
13:36It's why it's such a heinous crime, because it removes all humanity from the person involved.
13:40And because of that, they literally are seeing that person in the same way that you sort of look at these pictures of cows
13:46and the different cuts of meat, it really is quite literally treating a human being like that.
13:51Globally, between five and ten percent of transplants are thought to use black market organs.
13:57That's thousands of illegal operations every year.
14:06We want to find out more about the criminal networks in Egypt.
14:11And this is one part of Google's mission.
14:13We want to find out more about the criminal networks in Egypt.
14:18And this is one part of Cairo where they meet.
14:25It's where you come when you want to sell a kidney on the black market.
14:30Sean has met some of his best contacts here, but it's a dangerous place to film.
14:44This is where donors are signed up.
14:47Not a doctor's surgery or a hospital, but a coffee shop.
14:52The start of an illegal medical procedure.
14:58As far as the cases of trafficking persons for organs removal,
15:02the bribery, corruption of personnel working, medical personnel, doctors,
15:12of course, is a characteristic of this form of trafficking.
15:16Finding criminals who talk about the organ trade is proving difficult.
15:22And we've got another problem.
15:25The secret police are everywhere.
15:32This time it's a bit more difficult.
15:35The police are everywhere.
15:38The police are everywhere.
15:41The police are everywhere.
15:43This time it's a bit more difficult.
15:46I think there's a lot more attention on foreign tourists
15:50and what their activities are and what we're doing here.
15:53For example, we took some photographs and a security officer in plain clothes
15:57stopped us and asked if he could see our camera.
16:00He looked through all the pictures and he wanted to know why we were there.
16:07He asked us a lot of questions and I'm concerned that we're being followed.
16:14But despite this attention, we eventually make a breakthrough.
16:19A former organ trafficker has agreed to talk about the brutal trade.
16:28He says he joined one of the gangs after selling his own kidney.
16:34He's very nervous.
16:37I met the broker and we made an agreement.
16:41Then we made the medical checks.
16:52Everything stops when there's a bang on the door.
16:56Everything stops when there's a bang on the door.
17:06We hide our cameras.
17:11It's a neighbour wondering what we're up to.
17:14We send them away but the former trafficker is spooked.
17:18He says his job was to find people willing to sell their kidneys
17:23before passing them up the chain.
17:30I bring the donors, take them to the broker and they make the deal.
17:37Then what does this broker do?
17:40He takes them to a flat, takes them to the hospital.
17:44They keep your passport.
17:47The next day, they take them for medical checks.
17:51Check your blood group, do an ultrasound and many other checks.
17:57These may take around a week.
18:04Then they take you to the hospital.
18:07Then they take you to the hospital.
18:09During this week, they take them to the Ministry of Health
18:13to sign a document as an organ donor.
18:16Then they take that consent and take them to the hospital with the recipient.
18:28We can't verify what he's told us
18:31but the involvement of corrupt officials and doctors
18:35has been corroborated in detail.
18:37One of the doctors has been corroborated
18:40in dozens of our experts' previous interviews.
18:44So the broker pays a bribe to a select member
18:48of the Egyptian Ministry of Health to approve the paperwork
18:51without asking too many questions.
18:54The consent forms, their legal document, a statement
18:57explaining that the donation is altruistic,
19:00that it's free of financial gain,
19:03that there is no commercial transaction
19:05and that the donor is given his or her free and informed consent.
19:11But any of the people I've spoke to who have sold a kidney,
19:15they've simply signed the form or used a fingerprint.
19:18They haven't read the form.
19:29The Egyptian government says it's won praise and approval internationally
19:32for its strategy to eliminate this heinous crime.
19:36It's made arrests and says the illegal operations
19:39happen in clinics or private hospitals,
19:42but not government hospitals.
19:45There's no proof of the involvement of any government official.
20:03We need to get to one of the gang leaders,
20:06but it's getting harder to film in Cairo.
20:09We've been repeatedly stopped and checked by the plainclothes police.
20:13Now one of them seems to be taking a particular interest.
20:23Yesterday when we came back to the hotel,
20:26the police officer who stopped us was here.
20:28And during the day, when we were walking,
20:32looking for a location to film,
20:35we were followed for maybe two or three hours.
20:38It's time to move.
20:41Everywhere we go, there's eyes on us.
20:44It's very difficult to operate.
20:47It's very difficult to move.
20:50If you stay in one place for too long,
20:53every move we make is under surveillance.
20:56The team keep changing hotels.
21:01Then we make another breakthrough.
21:05We make contact with a leading member
21:08of one of the criminal gangs.
21:12Sean has never spoken to someone this high up before.
21:18It's very difficult.
21:20He's never spoken to someone this high up before.
21:25It's risky, but we send him the details of a safe location to meet.
21:30Brokers, they work in a network. There's different roles.
21:34So when we say brokers, we're really talking about a network.
21:37There's not one person in particular in charge.
21:40Usually there's someone who will recruit people.
21:43So it could be someone from Sudan who recruits migrants from Sudan.
21:47For them it's not necessarily a full-time job.
21:50But for the other brokers who have established connections
21:53with the labs and the doctors, for them it's a big business.
22:11Eventually we get a message.
22:14He's on his way. It's a nervous moment.
22:17He's much more deeply involved than anyone we've talked to before.
22:21We need to be careful.
22:23We don't know who he is and what he's capable of.
22:27But I don't think he'll agree to talk in front of cameras, but we can try.
22:39But when the broker arrives, he agrees to be interviewed.
22:42He says his gang alone is arranging between 20 to 30 illegal transplants a week.
22:53I've been involved in the organ trade since 2003.
22:57All nationalities buy from Cairo because it's available.
23:02Is there a lot of hospitals involved?
23:05Yes, a lot. Public and private.
23:08Are there a lot of people selling their kidneys at the moment?
23:11Yes, but it's busiest in the summer because kidney patients get sicker.
23:16They drink a lot of water because of the hot weather.
23:19We have a lot of work during that period from all over the world.
23:24And the people who don't get paid what they're promised, how do you feel about that?
23:32I give them their money.
23:34Other people agree a price, but never pay up after the surgery.
23:44Does this happen often?
23:46About 40% of the cases.
23:53So he says almost half of victims never get paid.
23:59The broker then reveals something that suggests the trade is going well.
24:02He reveals something that suggests the trade is even more corrupt than we thought.
24:08A charity has been helping the gang to find victims.
24:17We deal in Sudan with a specific organisation, but I can't talk about it.
24:22So NGOs are involved in this business?
24:25Yes, it's a Sudanese organisation.
24:32The broker refuses to tell us any more and he insists on checking our recording.
24:40I'm going to check that camera and if something isn't right I will delete everything on it.
24:48The broker has confirmed that corrupt doctors and officials are involved in the illegal organ trade.
24:55And what we found is that the corruption and false paperwork can be used to keep the victims quiet, even when they don't get paid.
25:08Another scar, another victim.
25:17Hiba was persuaded to sell a kidney to pay for her wedding.
25:20I found myself in the room after the surgery.
25:24I woke up screaming.
25:32My wound was so big, I didn't know it would be on my back.
25:37I thought it would be on my belly.
25:43I got so scared, I was screaming.
25:47I got so scared, I was screaming.
25:50This is wrong, you cheated me.
26:00When the organ traffickers didn't pay her, Hiba threatened to report everyone involved.
26:10People called the doctor and told him,
26:12there's a patient you did surgery on and she wasn't paid.
26:17He took the documents I signed to a lawyer.
26:20So if I tell the police, they can prove I donated my kidney voluntarily.
26:30The paperwork was used to prevent Hiba from reporting what had happened.
26:35The consent form says she agreed to donate her kidney for free.
26:39Anything else is illegal.
26:44I was going to the police station,
26:47but people told me that if I report them, the police may arrest me as well.
26:58The Egyptian government denies Hiba would have been arrested.
27:03It says victims have the right to report these gangs without fear on its whole.
27:07And it has increased the maximum punishment for organised criminal gangs to life imprisonment.
27:23But criminals are still making millions of dollars from black market transplants
27:29and its individual lives that are broken.
27:33I made this mistake and I don't want another girl to make it.
27:46So my advice to anybody who wants to donate,
27:55don't donate for money.
27:58Don't donate for money.
28:16It's time for our team to get out of Egypt.
28:21But that's not so easy for those caught up in the organ trawling.
28:28Tonight in Cairo, the latest victims are preparing to go under the knife.
28:35Selling their own body parts.
28:39Human beings butchered for profit.
28:57For more UN videos visit www.un.org