Syrian refugees victim of black market transplantology

Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr. 28 By Rufiz Hafizoglu – Trend: Continuation of military conflicts in Syria has led to the fact that more than 1.6 million Syrian refugees have found refuge in neighboring Turkey. It is not excluded that the number of Syrian refugees in Turkey will reach 2 million before the end of 2015. Sheltering of Syrian refugees has already cost Ankara $5.5 billion, according to the Office for the Prevention and Elimination of Consequences of Emergency (AFAD) of Turkey. In the province Sanliurfa alone, the population of which is 1.8 million people, the number of Syrian refugees is about 500,000 people. Turkey houses the majority in camps that have become home to approximately 300,000 Syrians. Istanbul alone has taken in 40,000 refugees from Syria with the rest scattered among the other Turkish provinces. In addition, in countries such as Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon, too, there is a considerable number of Syrian refugees. The total population of Syria before the conflict was 20 million people. Naturally, as a result of the existence of such a huge refugee population, Turkey is facing some economic and social problems. One of the most serious problems in this area is the issue of Syrian refugees who are engaged in begging. Despite the fact that this problem has been partially solved, more than 30,000 people have been detained in nine provinces of Turkey within the framework of the recent operations against beggars. Another problem in Turkey related to Syrian refugees, is the high divorce rate in the country. “A man can have several wives in Turkey and a marriage with a refugee from Syria costs only 3,000 TRY,” according to the reports of human rights organizations in Turkey. “Many Turkish women do not want to put up with this and file for divorce. Syrian refugees have caused about 20 percent of divorces in the Kilis province bordering Syria alone.” Another serious problem is trafficking which is thriving in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and in a number of other Arab countries. Around 107,000 women are living in the Syrian refugee camps in Turkey and over 20 percent of them are widows, according to the official statistics. The suppliers of “live goods” in the Persian Gulf countries take advantage of this. But all these are not the main problems that Syrian refugees face. One of the biggest problems that Syrian refugees face is the “black transplantology”. Currently, this remains as one of the urgent problems not only for Syrian refugees outside Syria, but also in this country’s territory. There are thousands of facts proving that Syrians within the country and beyond it are subject to the “black transplantology”. Mostly, children kidnapped from Syria’s Idlib and Aleppo provinces become the victims of the “black transplantology” and the majority of transplantations are carried out in Lebanon, according to Arab media. The clients of these “goods” are mainly the citizens of the Gulf countries. Moreover, there are a lot of facts proving that Syrian refugees also voluntarily “sell” their organs due to poverty problems. This mainly happens in such countries as Turkey, Jordan and Iraq. The “volunteers” get $6,000 for the costly “goods” (mainly for the kidney). The methods of recruitment of Syrian refugees for the “black transplantology” are different in Turkey. As distinct from other countries, living conditions are created for them in Turkey for the costly “goods”. Turkish police have repeatedly revealed the facts proving that Syrian refugees became the victims of the “black transplantology” and it is interesting that in many cases, it was revealed that Syrians themselves were recruiters. Although such countries as Turkey, Jordan and Iraq have started fighting the “black transplantology”, this problem still remains unresolved. Edited by CN --- Rufiz Hafizoglu is the head of Trend Agency's Arabic news service, follow him on Twitter: @rhafizoglu Follow us on Twitter @TRENDNewsAgency