Bedouin smugglers who engage in people trafficking are allegedly stealing organs from indigent refugees seeking to enter Israel without enough cash, according to a startling report from CNN.

The New Generation Foundation for Human Rights and the EveryOne group claim that bodies of African refugees have been found in the Sinai desert with organs missing. A Bedouin source identified criminals in the Sawarka tribe, one of the largest in Sinai, as the offenders. A Sawarka leader said he was aware of people trafficking, torture and bonded labour. However, he also said that only rogue sections of the tribe were involved. CNN reports that no one in the tribe was willing to speak out about organ theft.

But Hamdy Al-Azazy, of New Generation Foundation, says traffickers steal the organs from refugees while they are still alive. “The organs are not useful if they're dead. They drug them first and remove their organs, then leave them to die and dump them in a deep dry well along with hundreds of bodies.” He believes corrupt Egyptian doctors in mobile hospital units remove organs, particularly livers, kidneys and corneas.

“Mobile clinics using advanced technology come from a private hospital in Cairo to an area in the deserts of Mid-Sinai and conduct physicals on the Africans before they choose those suitable, then they conduct the operation,” Al-Azazy said. ~ CNN, Nov 3