Country or Hell... Myanmar People Selling Organs for 3 Million Won

Increase in Organ Trafficking Due to Financial Hardship Among the Working Class

After the military coup, Myanmar citizens suffering from severe economic hardship are reportedly resorting to organ trafficking.

On the 18th (local time), local media such as 'Frontier Myanmar' reported that "an increasing number of Myanmar commoners are choosing kidney trafficking to resolve poverty and debt."

In Myanmar, plunged into chaos by a coup, workers are suffering severe hardships due to low wages and soaring prices. The photo shows flames and smoke rising into the sky from government forces' shelling in a residential area of the small town of Tantlang in Chin State, western Myanmar, on November 29, 2021 (local time).
[Photo by AFP]

According to the report, since last year, the number of Myanmar people searching for accounts that facilitate kidney trafficking on social networking services (SNS) has rapidly increased.

The Myanmar Organ Donation Law enacted in 2015 prohibits the sale of human organs and stipulates a maximum prison sentence of three years for violations. However, local media analyzed that Myanmar people, unable to endure extreme economic hardship, are forced to engage in organ trafficking.

Win Aung, who lives in Mandalay, central Myanmar, said, "After losing my job, the livelihood of my family of four became desperate, so I went to India through a broker to donate a kidney and received 7 million kyat (about 3 million KRW), which solved my financial problems."

Protesters opposing the military coup gathered around the Hledan intersection in Yangon, Myanmar's largest city, on February 24, 2021 (local time).
[Image source=EPA Yonhap News]

Manein, who is four months pregnant and works at a garment factory in Yangon, said, "My monthly salary is 140,000 kyat (about 62,000 KRW), and I thought I could never raise a child like this, so I applied for kidney trafficking through SNS," but she lamented, "Maybe because I am pregnant, I have not been contacted."

Meanwhile, according to a report released by the World Bank in July last year, the number of poor people in Myanmar increased to about 22 million, or 40% of the total population of 55 million, after the military coup in February 2021. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) also revealed that the daily living expenses of Myanmar’s poor are below 1,590 kyat (about 740 KRW).