Thai authorities have begun investigating an alleged case of organ trafficking, after Cambodian police last week arrested a woman accused of brokering kidneys to patients in Thai hospitals.
Cambodia’s National Police spokesman Kirth Chantharith told the Anadolu Agency on Tuesday that he was aware of the investigation by the Thai side, and Cambodian police had been surprised by the case - the first reported instance of organ trafficking in Cambodia.
“Not in Cambodia, this is very unusual for us,” Chantharith said, referring to the broker’s arrest for allegedly organizing five illegal kidney transplants for Cambodian nationals awaiting operations in Thai hospitals.
Yem Azisah, alias Sinuon, is alleged to have preyed on poor Cambodians, including her own family members, getting them to agree to give up a kidney. Her stepfather, Nhem Phalla, 40, has also been arrested, accused of aiding her in the acquisition of fake identities for the donors.
Thailand's Nation newspaper quoted the country's Department of Health Service Support Director Deneral, Dr. Boonreung Trireungwarawat, as saying Tuesday that transplant surgeries could only be performed if the kidney donor was a blood relative or a spouse.
Lieutenant Colonel Keo Thea, chief of the Phnom Penh anti-human trafficking police, last week told The Cambodia Daily: “According to the law, even if a person agrees to sell their kidney, extracting organs is wrong.”
Police spokesman Chantharith told AA on Tuesday that the broker had pocketed most of the money herself.
“She promised to pay $11,000 to $15,000,” he said, adding that “the victims only received about $5,000.”
Thai media quoted officials sounding skeptical but concerned that trafficked organs could get into national hospitals when there are rigorous rules in place against them.
The deputy director general of Thailand's Department of Health Service Support, Dr. Thares Karasnairaviwong, told Bangkok's Nation newspaper on Tuesday that the office was cross-checking information about kidney transplants with the 26 hospitals allowed to conduct organ transplants.
He added that they would seek assistance from the Anti-Human Trafficking Police Division and the Thai Foreign Ministry to help crosscheck the name list with Cambodia.
