Cambodia rejects organ harvesting allegations

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Authorities call for concerted crackdown on trafficking, saying most ringleaders are foreigners

This handout photo taken on Aug 2, 2017 by the Cambodian Police shows detained Chinese nationals arrested in Banteay Meanchey province. Cambodia who were suspected of running an online scam. (Photo: AFP)

Published: September 09, 2022 08:36 AM GMT

Updated: September 09, 2022 09:26 AM GMT

The Cambodian government has rejected allegations made in Hong Kong and Taiwan that human traffickers had lured victims into this country for organ harvesting and the sale of body parts for transplants on the black market.

Up until now, there has not been a single case of a human trafficking organization harvesting organs from their victims to be sold, Chou Bun Eng, the permanent vice-chair of the National Committee for Counter Trafficking, said in dismissing the allegations.

These stories are all fabricated, Chou Bun Eng said.

She said the allegations that some human trafficking organizations in Cambodia are committing organ harvesting were made by a Hong Kong official and a Taiwanese journalist which she added were not new.

Videos, widely dismissed as fake, of organ harvesting have also been circulated online.

The scenario being reported by these people has also been reported in Cambodia, but they all ended up as nothing but lies for the sake of the fake victims personal gain, Chou Bun Eng said in a statement carried by the official Agence Kampuchea Presse.

“It affects our nations reputation”

It was issued as Interior Minister Sar Kheng called for more concerted efforts in combating human trafficking issues which he said has affected Cambodias reputation. Thousands of foreigners have been rescued and repatriated over the last three months, many to Vietnam.

We have kept them in a place before being deported. They have been cheat by brokers. This is one of our challenges when I say it affects our nations reputation, he said during the inauguration of new offices for Phnom Penh police.

Authorities also said 137 complaints related to the request for intervention to rescue 274 foreigners who were allegedly trafficked and detained in Cambodia were received between Aug. 18 and Sept. 7.

Cambodia has experienced an upsurge in human trafficking this year and repatriated thousands of foreign nationals, who were lured into the southern port town of Sihanoukville, where they were forced to work a wide range of online scams.

Many were allegedly subjected to electric shocks for failing to meet quotas while those who refused to work were ransomed by human trafficking rings.

The victims were deceived by false promises of high-paid jobs and arrived here from across central and east Asia. Many were transported illegally across borders, some arrived by specially chartered or scheduled flights and others came by sea.

In July, the United States dropped Cambodia to Tier 3, the lowest rank on its human trafficking index, after failing to deal with the issue effectively.

[Up to] 99.9 percent of the ringleaders of the crime are not Cambodian nationals. The ones who make plans to send people from other countries to Cambodia are not Cambodians, Sar Kheng said.

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