Syrian refugees desperate for money to get passage to Europe are selling their organs on the black market and the profits are lining the pockets of organised crime and terrorist networks, two experts say.
Key points:
Egypt and Turkey have become 'epicentres for organ trafficking'
60 per cent of black market organ recipients receive them from Syrians
Links found between organ traffickers and organised criminal and terrorist groups
Griffith University's Dr Campbell Fraser said some Syrian refugees living in different parts of the Middle East were desperate to get to Europe, but had no money to pay their way.
"They'll do anything, they have no money, they've got these brokers who see these people as dollar signs," he said.
"Now there's no money, so they've got to have something to sell."
Dr Fraser said the illegal organ trade was not something new, and that Egypt and Turkey had simply taken over as the epicentres for the business from China and the Philippines.
He said the successful anti-trafficking campaigns over the past few years had resulted in an "unintentional negative consequence of driving the price up".
"So therefore a kidney now is probably going to sell for about $100,000," he said.
"Because of that organised crime groups now can see this as a really profitable way for fundraising."
Dr Fraser said he had been working with law enforcement agencies in Europe investigating the links between the organ traffickers and organised criminal and terrorist groups.
"We're looking at bank accounts, where the money is actually going to, and that appears to be giving the pattern that we would expect from money laundering from some of the large criminal and terrorist groups," he said.
"Because we know where the donors are coming from, these are countries associated with terrorism — so Syria in particular."
Money 'directly and indirectly feeding ISIS'
Professor Duminda Wijesekera, a money laundering expert from George Mason University in Washington, said human intelligence provided the best evidence to link organ trafficking to terrorist networks.
"They know the parties that collect the money, the intermediate parties — not the hospitals, not the surgeons," he said.
"These people who get this money are in fact working for the human smugglers to get people into Europe.
"It directly and indirectly feeds ISIS and the money flows have been traced — sometimes you do not directly give cash to these organisations, you pay the people who supply weapons, they supply fighters."
Professor Wijesekera said that generally organ recipients were wealthy people from China and the West.
He said about 60 per cent of those recipients received their organs from Syrians — who would then receive less than 5 per cent of the sale.
Dr Fraser also said some of the buyers were coming from Australia.
"Ultimately the only way to stop organ trafficking is if we increase the availability of organs in each country," he said.
And on invitation from the Pope, Dr Fraser will take that message to a summit on organ trafficking at Vatican City next month.
