Dubizzle kidney ad flags black market organ trade

An advert on classifieds website Dubizzle offering a human kidney for sale has highlighted how the GCC’s lack of transplant centres is driving the black market organ trade, experts said.

Residents in need of transplants have little choice but to turn to the illegal trafficking trade due to a Gulf-wide shortfall in donor schemes, putting themselves at risk of surgical complications, said

Dr Saeed Al Shaikh, consultant hepatologist at Dubai’s Welcare Hospital.

“It is not only illegal, it is also unsafe. You are at risk of so many diseases because the surgery is carried out by unprofessional people,” he told Arabian Business.

“Unfortunately the illegal trade goes on because there are very few legal means [of arranging an organ transplant]. We need decent, good transplant centres, but for several reasons it’s not happening. What is left for the people?”

The Dubizzle advert described a “flawless” human kidney for sale at a price of AED200,000.

The site’s managing director Sim Whatley said the advert had slipped through the net.

“This is a one off occurrence. We’ve never really seen anything like this before.”

The GCC states have been slow to introduce cadaver transplant schemes common in Western nations, meaning the vast majority of transplants currently use living donors.

The subsequent shortage has sent patients to Egypt, India, Pakistan and the Philippines for illegal operations, at a cost of up to $15,000 per organ.

Also complicating the matter is the high rate of diabetes among GCC citizens, a condition that can increase the chance of renal failure. The Gulf states have some of the highest rates of obesity and type 2 diabetes in the world, with the UAE ranks second worldwide for diabetes incidence.

A report by the Coalition for Organ-Failure Solutions in December found Egypt had seen a surge in organ trafficking after its Arab Spring revolution left gaps in law-enforcement.

The report estimated that thousands of refugees and poor citizens were victims of the country’s thriving illicit organ trade, with hundreds more targeted in states such as Jordan, Syria and Iraq.

Among the testimonies in the COFS report included a Darfurian who was promised $9,000 by a broke to finance his safe passage out of Egypt in exchange for a kidney.