Egyptian authorities announced the arrest of 25 members of an international network allegedly trafficking human organs, including university professors, doctors, nurses, owners of medical centres and brokers. The country´s Administrative Control Authority announced earlier last week “Today at dawn, the largest international network for trading human organs has been captured”. The network “is made up of Egyptians and Arabs taking advantage of citizens with harsh economic conditions so that they may sell their organs for large sums of money,” it said.
The authority, which is responsible for tracking corruption cases in state institutions, said that they found in their possession “millions of dollars and gold coins”.Ten medical centres and labouratories were searched in the process and the authorities found documents related to the charge. It is to be noted that, Egypt´s parliament passed a law in 2010 banning the commercial trade in organs as well as transplants between Egyptians and foreigners, except in cases of husband and wife. The parliamentary decision came shortly after a World Health Organisation’s announcement that ranked Egypt in the top five countries dealing in illegal Organs trade. The law aimed to regulate organ transplants in a bid to curb illegal trafficking. According to the United Nations, hundreds of poor Egyptians sell their kidneys and livers each year to be able to buy food or pay off debts, an issue that has become widely known at certain Café’s where such dealings take place.
