Hundreds of African Migrants Victims of Organ Trafficking Voluntarily and Coerced
From their countries of origin to the southern Mediterranean, hundreds of refugees face an escalating danger of violations such as kidnapping and organ theft.
More migrants and refugees are undertaking perilous journeys across desert routes towards North, West, and East Africa to reach the southern shores of the Mediterranean, where they face an increasing risk of violations like kidnapping and organ theft.
A report supported by the United Nations on Friday stated that these routes are twice as dangerous as the main Mediterranean route, which documents incidents more effectively. It noted that over 800 people have drowned in the sea this year alone.
Vincent Cochetel, Special Envoy of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees for the Western and Central Mediterranean, participated in preparing the report based on interviews with over 30,000 migrants between 2020 and 2023. He said that testimonies indicated that the living, dead, and sick were abandoned in the desert.
Addressing journalists in Geneva, he said, “Anyone who has crossed the desert can tell you about people they know who died there.” He continued, “We cannot lose our ability to be outraged at this level of violence along the route. Some of these issues can be addressed,” calling for more protection services, search, and rescue missions.
A study co-written by the International Organization for Migration indicated that the number of people undertaking these journeys is greater than previously reported four years ago, citing data from the UN Refugee Agency in Tunisia, which showed a more than 200% increase in arrivals in 2023 compared to 2020.
According to the report, local conflicts in parts of the Sahel and civil wars in Sudan, as well as climate change and increasing racism along the route, are factors driving migrants to undertake these journeys.
A survey showed that nearly one in five migrants, or 18%, feared kidnapping, while 15% feared sexual violence.
Cochetel stated that hundreds have become victims of organ trafficking, forced to sell their organs for survival or having them forcibly removed, explaining that “in most cases, people are drugged and their organs removed without consent.”
He added that smugglers were among those attacking them, alongside criminal gangs and government officials such as police and border guards who, in some cases, abandoned migrants on the other side of their borders, according to eyewitnesses.
Bram Frouws, Director of the Mixed Migration Center involved in preparing the report, said, “Much of this happens in a state of near-total impunity,” calling for greater accountability.
Accusations have been leveled at the European Union for funding transit countries to deport migrants and abandon them in the barren desert.
An investigative report published by the Lighthouse Reports alliance in May last year, in collaboration with several media outlets including Le Monde and The Washington Post, accused Europe of direct support and funding for secret operations in North African countries, as well as its participation in transporting tens of thousands of Africans and leaving them in the desert or remote areas every year to prevent them from reaching bloc countries.
The report also discussed a system of mass deportation, accusing the Union of providing vehicles, equipment, intelligence, and security forces, noting that refugees and migrants in Morocco, Mauritania, and Tunisia are detained based on their skin color and transported by bus to desolate desert areas without water or food.
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Last May, the European Union agreed on a comprehensive reform of the migration and asylum system aimed at tightening bloc policies on irregular migration and deporting more arrivals to third countries for processing their requests.
