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In Baiguni village, Kalai Upazila of Joypurhat district, 45-year-old Safiruddin sits in front of his half-built brick house. Even now, pressing lightly on the right side of his abdomen causes sharp pain. The scars of that surgery still linger on his body.
According to a report published on Friday (July 04) by Qatar-based news outlet Al Jazeera, this information came to light. The special report was prepared by Joyoti Thakur, Aminul Islam Mithu, and Hanan Zafar. In 2024, driven by poverty and the hope of building a home for his three children, Safiruddin sold one of his kidneys to an individual in India for 350,000 taka. However, that money has long been spent, and the construction of his house remains stalled. The daily physical pain serves as a constant reminder of the dreadful decision he made. Currently, Safiruddin works as a day laborer in a cold storage facility in Joypurhat. His weakened body, post-surgery, makes the daily grind increasingly challenging. “I did everything for my wife and children,” he says. Initially hesitant, Safiruddin was persuaded by middlemen’s assurances. From passports and visas to travel arrangements and hospital paperwork, the trafficking network handled everything. Although he traveled to India on a medical visa, hospital documents falsely listed him as a “relative” of the recipient. Fake identity cards, forged birth certificates, and notarized documents were also created for him. The identity of the person who received his kidney remains unknown to Safiruddin. Under Indian law, kidney transplants are permitted only between close relatives. However, in special cases, non-relatives can donate with government approval. Trafficking networks bypass these regulations by fabricating familial ties, sometimes even producing fake DNA reports. Dr. Moniruzzaman, a professor at Michigan State University and a member of the World Health Organization’s Organ Transplantation Taskforce, explains that these deceptive practices are common. They include name changes, fake notarized certificates, and forged national identity cards to establish a false familial connection. Safiruddin’s story is not unique in Baiguni village. In this village of approximately 6,000 people, so many have sold their kidneys that it has earned the grim nickname “One Kidney Village.” A 2023 study published in the *British Medical Journal Global Health* revealed that one in every 35 adults in Kalai Upazila has sold a kidney. Most sellers are men aged 30 to 40, driven by extreme poverty. Some are compelled by debt, while others fall into this trap due to drug addiction or gambling. Safiruddin shared that the middlemen did not return his passport, prescriptions, or any documents after the surgery. He received no necessary medications and was sent home without medical follow-up or monitoring. Often, traffickers deliberately withhold documents to prevent sellers from seeking medical care or filing legal complaints later. These organs are primarily sold to wealthy kidney patients in India who seek to bypass lengthy legal transplant processes. In 2023, only 13,600 kidney transplants were performed in India, while approximately 200,000 people suffer from end-stage kidney disease annually. This gap between demand and supply fuels an underground market and strengthens trafficking networks. Shariful Hasan, associate director of BRAC’s Migration Program, noted, “Some people knowingly sell their kidneys, but many are deceived.” In many cases, sellers do not receive the full promised amount. For instance, Mohammad Sajol (pseudonym) sold his kidney in 2022 at Venkateshwar Hospital in Delhi for a promised 1 million taka but received only 350,000 taka. Deceived and frustrated, Sajol later joined the trafficking network, recruiting kidney sellers from Bangladesh to send to India. However, conflicts over profit-sharing led him to leave the network. He now works as a ride-sharing driver in Dhaka, haunted by regret and the experience of being deceived.
