Myanmar’s poor are selling kidneys for lack

Last Updated on September 1, 2024 8:43 am

The country has been facing various crises since the Myanmar army took power in a coup. Almost half of Myanmar’s 54 million people now live below the poverty line. The situation has become so dire that poor people are forced to sell their organs.

Poor people are selling organs especially kidneys to rich people on social media Facebook to solve the lack of money. CNN’s year-long investigation revealed such sensational information on Saturday.

According to the report, three years after the army came to power, almost half of the country’s 54 million people are living below the poverty line. According to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) researchers, this number has doubled since 2017. Poor people in Myanmar travel to India with the help of agents to sell their body parts. He sold organs there.

It should be noted that selling organs is illegal under the laws of both countries.

Due to lack of money, delivery driver Mong Mong decided to sell his kidney in 2022. At that time, he posted on Facebook to sell kidneys. A few months later, in July 2023, he went to India for transplant surgery. A Chinese-Burmese businessman bought his kidney for $3,000.

According to 2019 data from the UN-affiliated Myanmar Information Management Unit, that amount ($3,000) was almost twice the annual income of a household in a city in Myanmar.

Mong Mong says, only one kidney is left. I can live for 15 to 20 years at most and then I will die. But I have no regrets.

He also said, ‘If I hadn’t done this right now, my life would have been miserable. No job, no food. My wife and children had nothing to eat. All three of us could have died.’

Not only Mong Mong, there are many other people in Myanmar who sell their body parts for money.

In the online organ business, buyers and sellers often work with agents. Through these agents, the buyers and sellers make the necessary document forgery and make surgical arrangements. Selling organs is illegal in India and donation is allowed only between relatives, with some rare exceptions. So agents often falsify family records and other documents with the help of lawyers and notaries.

CNN found posts on at least three Burmese-language Facebook groups offering to sell organs. Spoke to two dozen people involved in the organ trade, including buyers, sellers and agents.

It is known that they are involved in such illegal activities due to lack of money in the civil war-ravaged country.