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| A precarious journey of dreamers. © Abreu Report |
An investigation by Abreu Report on the Greek island of Kos has left us completely stunned and unable to articulate the level of brutality that many refugees fleeing aerial bombardments have had to face.
Although in the past, purchasing an organ in the black market was something available only to extremely wealthy individuals who could co-opt not only international gangs specializing in the theft of body parts, but also hospitals and doctors, today an entire industry has propped up specializing in the acquisition and sale of human organic systems, making black market transplants affordable to most upper middle-class Europeans.
According to a 42-year-old man who introduced himself as Rafik from Dare-er-Ezzor, a Syrian city home to a government army base completely surrounded by Islamic State forces, he was personally approached by an Iraqi national who had sold one of his kidneys for an undisclosed amount.
The Iraqi national was offered a commission for every person he recruited, according to Rafik.
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| Rafik plans to sell a kidney to get to Germany. © Abreu Report |
An individual with Rafik confirmed that he was also approached by an associate of the Iraqi national. Apparently every single member of the Iraqi national's entourage had paid their way from Turkey to Greece by selling a kidney.
Considering that the Islamic State legalized the acquisition of human organs last year, the very real likelihood is that the terror proto-state has adopted the sale of organs as one of its revenue streams, especially as its oil facilities come under direct attack.
Rafik told Abreu Report that when he was first approached, he immediately rebuffed the offer because he thought he would be welcomed in Europe with open arms and have a house quickly.
However, after a few weeks of cold in a tent, he described how desperation drove him to change his mind.
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| Desperate to escape at any cost. © Abreu Report |
Rafik says he has heard rumors of individuals disappearing, and that there are suspicions in his tent quarter that they were taken by organ smugglers.
"I feel like I can't say no. I have nowhere to go, the food is not very good, and I fear they might take me by force. I never separate from my group, we're too afraid of being kidnapped by organ bandits," Rafik explained.
Abreu Report investigated the rumors of disappearances, but most were attributed to losses at sea.
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| Victim of organ trafficking? |
Nonetheless, we met another refugee, a 36-year-old from Pakistan, who told us that people were disappearing, and he took us to the poster of a person that he suspected of being the victim of organ harvesting.
Our investigation left us unnerved, for there exists a very real fear among the refugee population in Greece that they could be next; the victim of an attack by the far-right group Golden Dawn, or of a mysterious disappearance in the middle of the night.
Desperate people are running away from war, only to find nothing but the most brutal, inhumane form of exploitation. Although there is rising and terrifying xenophobia in Europe that seeks to expel every single non-European, some are literally welcoming refugees with open hearts.
