CAIRO -- Migrants making the crossing from Africa to Europe are being killed for vital organs in a trade worth almost 1,3 billion euros, according to an investigation carried out by ‘La Repubblica’. Egyptian officials are also said to be implicated in the scandal. 

 Although the claim was not fully backed up at first, the newspaper's investigation has now revealed that, every year, dozens of migrants escaping Ethiopia and Eritrea are kidnapped in Sudan, before having their organs taken out.

 Omdurman, an area east to the east of the Sudanese capital of Karthoum, is where much of the trafficking begins.  

 “It is here that all those kidnapped are loaded onto trucks. After that, they never come out again,” an international diplomat told the newspaper. 

 “Intelligence services in all the countries involved are already at work,” he continues, “and the phenomenon, which uses Sudan as a transit country, implicates Egypt more than any other country. It is here that all the illegal hospitals are set up and run by international crime organisations.”

 “What’s more, there are some citizens in Eritrea and Sudan who will choose to have an organ taken out of their own free will; be they people with families in Europe held up for ransom, or weaker family members like women and children.”

 Suspects thought to have had a hand in the Egyptian side of the trade are already being kept under custody by Italian authorities, even though nothing has been made official as yet to help keep the tension already created by the Regeni case at bay.

 The phenomenon became a matter of international interest on July 4, when officials from the Palermo and Agrigento police forces issued the arrest of 38 people thought to have been involved in human trafficking.

 Following the arrests, an interview with fisherman Atta Wehabrebi revealed the inner depths of the trade: “Sometimes, migrants don’t have the means to pay for the crossing, and so I’ve heard that these people are handed over to Egyptians, who then kill them so they can get hold of their organs, which they will sell on for around 15,000 dollars.”

lej