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Kidney brokers raid village
14/06/2007 20:35 - (SA)
Chisinau - In one small Moldovan village almost at the confines of eastern Europe, the residents still have not forgotten the day the human traffickers arrived.
Mingir, a village of have-nots whose people continue to be forced to emigrate to work and feed their families, hit rock-bottom in 1999 when a score of residents sold their kidneys after being left stranded in Turkey with no cash and no means of returning home.
"One day a woman came to Mingir and said she was recruiting young people to send them to work in Turkey," said Vasile Dimineti. "My son, who was 18, left without really thinking anything of it."
"They gave him $2 000 that he very quickly spent. Then we learnt that they'd extracted his only good kidney. He died two years ago," added the old man, tearfully showing his son's photograph.
"Nothing means anything to me any more."
The traffickers in human organs operated in Moldova, Turkey and Israel, according to a report by the Council of Europe.
Under medical supervision
The so-called "donors", the report said, signed a paper giving their written consent before being informed as to what was to happen next.
Medical tests were carried out at night and the ill-fated victims kept under medical supervision for five days before being shipped off home.
Moldova remains one of the poorest countries in Europe with 29.5% of the population living below the poverty line.
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