The Shadow Market of Survival: Exploring the Nexus of Migration, Poverty, and Organ Trafficking

It has become a global development of the commercial trade in human organs, including trafficking persons to procure organ removal. This report details the current international organ trafficking situation. Often, this is committed by transnational criminal networks. It focuses on the role of the traffickers, international brokers, health professionals, the recipients and suppliers. A number of international organizations have developed a legal framework criminalizing offences of trafficking and corresponding law enforcement instruments addressing the fight and prevention of organ commercialism and trafficking. In detail, a number of recent trafficking cases of which European citizens participated have been analyzed to show what kinds of organ trafficking are taking place and to demonstrate how investigation and prosecution can lead to an effective justice response to such crimes. The EU and other European organizations, such as the Council of Europe or the OSCE, are described as engaging in efforts to come up with binding legal instruments aimed at increasing law enforcement and legal cooperation in the fight against trafficking in organs and formulated policy actions. The observations and recommendations for the EU in order to prepare the next steps to successfully fight against and prevent trafficking in organs and organ commercialism make up the ending of the report.