Typically, when you enter “forced organ harvesting” in a search engine, the results will provide awareness and preventive measures taken to solve this issue in China.
However, China is not the only place in the world where people are facing the misfortune of forced organ harvesting.

Today, it is rare that many would know the location of the Sinai Desert or the human tragedy that lies hidden there, left unknown to the masses. The Sinai is the place where refugees—the majority of whom are Eritrean, Ethiopian, and Sudanese—are taken against their will. These people are held for ransom while their organs are forcefully harvested, and this gruesome practice occurs every day.

The desert is located on the Egyptian Peninsula, spanning to the neighbouring border of Israel. These refugees, fleeing their homelands due to various forms of persecution, offer money to Bedouin guides to take them to the Egypt-Israel border. Corrupt Bedouin guides then lead the refugees, including women and children, to a detention site where they are tortured and held for ransom. According to Human Rights Watch, the captives are forced to make calls to relatives, instructing them to make the payments in exchange for their lives. During these phone calls the smugglers physically abuse their victims to create a sense of urgency for their relatives. If their family members are unable to provide the ransom, the traffickers threaten to harvest their organs. Details of these events have recently been surfacing with personal testimonials.

Reports of mass graves in the desert have been found, with post-mortem autopsies exposing incisions predominantly in the abdomen, near the kidneys and liver, as well as in the corneas of the eyes. After harvesting, the organs are sold on the black market in nations such as Egypt and other Middle Eastern countries. The hostages’ naked bodies are beaten with electrical cords; the hostages are burned with hot irons, given electric shocks, beaten on the soles of their feet, and are tortured in many other cruel ways. The corrupt Bedouins force the women to cook and clean after them, and are often referred to as “slaves.” The women are raped repeatedly by groups of men, either among captives or in secluded areas, and this abuse can last several days to a week. Physicians for Human Rights-Israel told Human Rights Watch that in 2010, they had performed approximately 80 abortions on asylum seekers coming from the Sinai Desert. They also added that gynecological examinations showed that these aborted pregnancies were the result of sexual trauma endured in the Sinai.

The Sinai Desert is under the control of desert-dwelling Bedouins that are familiar with the area, far more than the government authority who rarely venture into the peninsula. Human Rights Watch has reported that the Government of Egypt has not prosecuted the traffickers nor closed the detention sites of the refugees. The Egyptian government has been criticized for not reacting sooner and neglecting to put an end to human trafficking and forced organ harvesting. However, there have been grassroots attempts to intervene and help the released captives. According to the Daily Mail, an online newspaper, alliances have been made with Bedouin Sheikhs to intervene and help stop these atrocities.

The inaction of major governing parties in Egypt and other influential international governing bodies exemplifies the neglect and failure of humanity. These people are living in subhuman conditions and their cries for help are being ignored. The lack of awareness and effort by international organizations to stop these horrific events is very surprising. Neither of the political bodies in the respective countries, people of the developing nations, nor international governing bodies have done anything to try and facilitate acts of justice.

Ultimately, if there wasn’t a market for illegally harvested organs, there wouldn’t be a need to kidnap and mistreat these victims. If this type of work wasn’t lucrative, then there wouldn’t be the need to do this. However, this is the reality. This is happening as we speak. It has not stopped and it will not stop unless proper measures are taken. This type of treatment is unacceptable and this should no longer be hidden. The cries of these poor people should not fall on deaf ears. People all over the world should know about what happens in the heart of that desert.