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Organ brokers hit tsunami areas
14/01/2007 16:25 - (SA)
New Delhi - A southern Indian state has ordered a probe into reports that human organ traffickers were enticing homeless victims of the 2004 tsunami to sell their kidneys, a report said on Sunday.
The impoverished fishing community of Tamil Nadu, hard hit by the disaster, was being specially targeted by "organ brokers", the Press Trust of India (PTI) reported, quoting an unnamed official in the state capital, Chennai.
"These women were offered up to 100 000 rupees ($2 222) for their kidneys by the organ brokers, who took them to far-off places like Madurai city to perform surgery to remove their organs," an official said.
The news agency, quoting one official, said the donors were often not even paid half the promised sum, and some were suffering from a lack of post-surgical care.
"After several such incidents came to light, the Tamil Nadu government ordered a probe into the matter," the unnamed official said, identifying MS Sangeetha as the official heading the investigations. Cheap hair
Some of the donors told Sangeetha they agreed to go through with the surgery to sell their kidneys because they had no other means of livelihood, PTI said.
The unnamed official said some tsunami victims had also been approached by wig-makers scouring tsunami-hit regions to buy cheap hair.
India lost more than 16 000 people - mostly from Tamil Nadu's impoverished coastal regions - and suffered damage estimated by the United Nations at $2.5bn when the tsunami struck in December 2004.
India is yet to complete 50% of a targeted housing project for its tsunami victims.
- AFP
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