In Nepal, poverty-stricken workers are being tricked into selling their kidneys, with scammers convincing some to part with their organs by claiming they will grow back.
The Kavre district in the foothills of the Himalayas has become known as the valley of kidneys, a disturbing reputation earned because someone in almost every household has sold an organ.
Desperate for money, many are being sucked into “cash-for-kidney” businesses, with black market networks buying their organs for small sums and then trafficking them.
Large numbers of young men return from working abroad with kidney failure, creating a major health crisis in a country where around 20 percent of the population lives in poverty.
Many have died after selling their organs, while others have been left unable to work and need transplants; Victims are now warning others struggling for money not to get carried away with dangerous and illegal procedures.
Two Nepalese men reveal their scars after selling their kidneys. They told Sky News they were motivated by financial need.
In Hokse, a rural hilltop village 19 kilometers east of Kathmandu, locals have been targeted by so-called “organ runners” for years. In the photo: workers in 2015
A local named Suman, 31, said News from heaven who felt he had “no choice” but to travel to India and sell his kidney for just £3,000 as he faced financial ruin.
“I felt weak and lost consciousness,” he says. ‘When I woke up, it hurt a lot. Now I can’t work and I try to tell anyone I can not to sell their kidney.’
Another man who sold his kidney in India, where donors must be related to patients, told how the “agents” who helped him sell his kidney fabricated false documents and identification cards to convince authorities.
“My kidney was given to a fake sister,” he said. “I think the doctor in India knew she had sold him.”
A huge gap between supply and demand globally has opened a black market for organs, in which vulnerable people are exploited by criminal networks.
It is estimated that one in 10 transplanted organs has been trafficked, and in some cases doctors and hospitals are among those involved.
In 2007, the Nepalese government passed a law banning the sale of kidneys, but that hasn’t stopped the country’s poor from opting for it as a last resort.
In Hokse, a rural hilltop village 19 kilometers east of Kathmandu, locals have been targeted by so-called “organ runners” for years.
Soft-spoken sellers have persuaded villagers to sell their body parts for small sums of money, with one mother previously telling MailOnline she had sold hers for £1,300.
The victims are left with scars from the surgeries, which are illegal and often organized by “agents”
Desperate for money, many are being sucked into “cash for kidney” businesses, with black market networks buying their organs for small sums. In the photo: Victims in Hokse in 2015.
There are believed to have been dozens of victims in recent months, including a 19-year-old who was among the migrant workers who left home and returned without a kidney in 2022.
At least 150 people sold their kidneys in a single village in Kavre district, but only three cases were officially reported, Nepal’s National Human Rights Commission said. PBS last year.
Nepal is one of the poorest countries in the world and is frequently hit by natural disasters, such as an earthquake last November that left a trail of destruction and damaged tens of thousands of homes.
High levels of poverty have led to increasing numbers of people being driven abroad to countries such as Malaysia and the Gulf States to earn money to send home.
Many are forced to work on construction sites in brutal conditions; Extreme heat in places like Saudi Arabia and lack of water cause many to return to Nepal with kidney problems.
Nepal is one of the poorest countries in the world and is frequently hit by natural disasters, such as an earthquake last November that left a trail of destruction.
Dr. Pukar Shresth, a surgeon at the Human Organ Transplant Center in Nepal, noticed a pattern in which young, previously healthy men were returning with “completely defective kidneys.”
Previously he only performed transplants on elderly patients, but he said the situation has now become “very serious because about a third of all transplants are these migrant workers who come from abroad.”
As body part sellers take advantage of their victims’ naivety and many see no option but to work long hours in dangerously high temperatures, doctors have called for more education.
Many in Hokse insist they no longer sell their kidneys, but the village remains scarred by years of exploitation, with physical scars still visible on many of those who have sold their vital organs.