Cambodia-Thailand kidney trafficking case sparks fears of new organ market
The seven-inch scar runs diagonally across the left flank of his skinny torso, a glaring reminder of an operation he hoped would save his family from debt.
The seven-inch scar runs diagonally across the left flank of his skinny torso, a glaring reminder of an operation he hoped would save his family from debt but instead plunged him into shame.
Chhay, 18, sold his kidney for $3,000 in an illicit deal that saw him whisked from a rickety one-room house on the outskirts of the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh to a gleaming hospital in the medical tourism hub of neighbouring Thailand.
His shadowy journey, which went unnoticed by authorities two years ago, has instigated Cambodia’s first-ever cases of organ trafficking and the arrests of two alleged brokers.
It has also raised fears that other victims are flying beneath the radar.
At the corrugated iron shack he shares with nine relatives, Chhay says a neighbour persuaded him and a pair of brothers - all from the marginalised Cham Muslim minority - to sell their kidneys to rich Cambodians on dialysis.
“She said you are poor, you don’t have money, if you sell your kidney you will be able to pay off your debts,” the teenager said, requesting his real name be withheld.