Organ trade in times of conflict: refugees as vulnerable victims

• In Event: Criminology of Mobility. Panel 6. Forms of trafficking in human beings

Abstract

Organ trade, as a global phenomenon, has neither geographical limitations, nor limitations regarding victim typology. Refugees, in particular, always constituted one of the most vulnerable victim groups, since they are already facing forced expatriation due to extremely aggravated conditions in their homeland (armed conflicts, civil war, dictatorial regimes, genocide, etc).
The 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol stipulate that refugee is a person who «..owing to well founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country..».
In their struggle to find safety, refugees are easily exploited by organized criminal networks that take advantage of their poverty and illiteracy, aiming to benefit financially from their desperation. Especially in countries at war, organized crime faces no restrictions due to the absence of legitimacy. There have been cases of refugees of the Syrian civil war selling kidneys to crime rings in Lebanon and Beirut in order to survive. Similarly, in Egypt, 57 persons claimed to have been victims of organ trade when they fled there in 2010-2011 to seek asylum from the genocide in Sudan. By analogy, in Ukraine, where over 6 million refugees are recorded to have fled across Europe since the Russian invasion in 2022, the parliament legislated in January 2025, the prohibition of organ harvesting from military and civilian casualties (soldiers killed in combat, unidentified persons, etc).
Whatever may be their nationality, one truth remains: Refugees are being coerced into selling their organs, without being able to report it to the police, therefore being condemned to a life full of psychosomatic ramifications.

Author

• Athina Koufou, Independent Researcher, PhD on human organ trafficking (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Law Faculty)