Juliet Buna
An organ trafficking alert from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has been circulating online.
The post which listed the prices of various human organs on the black market, was accompanied by an image purportedly issued by the UNODC to warn individuals of agents and companies offering jobs abroad with the intention of harvesting their organs. It highlighted the most valuable organs and listed the cost of each one in dollars.
The screenshot bears the United Nations logo with the heading “Organ Trafficking” and a subheading “United Nations Alert,” along with a text which reads as follows:
“The black market for parts of the human body is booming in the Middle East. A Kidney now cost 262,000 dollars (131 million CFA francs); the heart costs 119,000 dollars (60 million CFA francs) and the liver costs 157,000 dollars (79 million CFA francs).
“Beware of fake foreign agencies promising to make you work abroad. They process your papers, pay your plane ticket and just take you abroad pretending they want to find you a job, but instead, they kill their victims, recover all the precious parts of their bodies.
“Many people have been offered jobs in the Middle East and so far their families have been unable to locate them. SHARE TO SAVE LIVES”
This image and the accompanying message has been shared across social media platforms from X, Facebook to LinkedIn . This has made it imperative for NV-A to fact-check the image which has been in circulation for over three years.
VERIFICATION
What is the UNODC? Is it related to the UN?
Human trafficking and migrant smuggling are heinous crimes that exploit and profit from the vulnerability of men, women, and children. Criminal networks and individuals prey on desperate individuals seeking a better life, subjecting them to abuse, neglect, exploitation, and even death.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) is a United Nations agency responsible for combating illicit drugs, organized crime, and terrorism. It was established in 1997 and is headquartered in Vienna, Austria. According to the agency’s website, UNODC is committed to eradicating these crimes by dismantling the criminal enterprises responsible and bringing the perpetrators to justice. UNODC also protects people from the devastating consequences of these crimes and ensures that victims receive the support and protection they need.
Meanwhile, the UN continues to take a strong stance against organ trafficking, recognizing it as a form of exploitation that preys on vulnerable individuals, including those living in poverty, migrants, and refugees. Through various resolutions and agreements, the UN has called on member states to prevent and combat organ trafficking, protect victims, and hold perpetrators accountable.
The UN General Assembly (UNGA) has also adopted several resolutions on trafficking in persons, including organ trafficking, and has urged member states to implement the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children.
The United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons Especially Women and Children, provides the sole internationally accepted definition of trafficking in persons. Article 3 – (a) of the protocol says, “Trafficking in persons” shall mean the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.”
Did the UNODC issue the circulating image alert?
The organ trafficking alert purportedly issued by the UNODC has been circulating online for a while. An investigation by NV-A revealed that the alert did not originate from the UNODC. A search of the UNODC website yielded no evidence of such an alert.
A Google reverse image search of the image shows that the same image has been in circulation since 2021.While PR Nigeria News fact-checked the claim in 2022, Saharareporters and Ghana Fact have done a fact-check on the image since 2021.
News Verifier Africa also discovered that the alert in question has been previously debunked by AFP Fact-Check, which confirmed that UNODC Pakistan has dismissed the alert as fake.
According to AFP, the regional UNODC office stated that the message does not originate from their organisation and contains outdated information unrelated to their current activities. The AFP quoted the regional branch of the UNODC as saying that the message “does not originate from UNODC and contains out-of-date information that is not related to current UNODC activities.”
CONCLUSION
The circulating image is a recycled disinformation image. The claim made in the image is FALSE as the message contained in it did not originate from the UNODC.
