BBC has reported that more than 300 migrants from the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, who were attempting to reach the United Kingdom last summer, were abducted in Libya and subjected to torture and threats of forced organ removal.
According to the report, these young men were taken hostage by an armed militia group in Libya. The kidnappers demanded a ransom of $5,000 from each hostage’s family and warned that their kidneys would be removed if the payment was not made.
The BBC spoke with several released hostages and reviewed visual evidence which, according to the broadcaster, indicates that some individuals were subjected to forced surgical procedures for kidney extraction.
The freed hostages also showed signs of torture and described being held in extremely harsh conditions, confined in small cells alongside approximately 180 other detainees. At least one person reportedly died during these events, and it remains unclear how many others are still in captivity.
According to the BBC, these migrants were intended to travel via Libya to the Mediterranean coast and subsequently onward to Europe. However, a financial dispute between the militia group and a human trafficker named Noah Aaron led to their abduction.
Noah Aaron, a human trafficker from the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, has now been sentenced to 10 years in prison in France on charges of money laundering and human trafficking. Details of this case emerged during BBC investigations into another trafficker named Kardo Jaf.
The report states that both Kardo Jaf and Noah Aaron are originally from the town of Ranya in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, and are believed to have previously collaborated.
The BBC also reports that during its investigation in Ranya, it encountered multiple families whose children were among the hostages. Some of these families provided journalists with images of surgical scars on their children’s bodies.
The outlet further reports that a medical specialist in the United Kingdom, after reviewing one of the images, stated that the scar patterns were consistent with those from standard kidney surgery incisions; however, it has not yet been independently verified whether any organs were actually removed from these individuals.
United Nations experts say that instability and the lack of effective governance across large parts of Libya have enabled human trafficking networks and armed groups to operate, placing migrants at severe and ongoing risk.
Writer:Salima Aryaei
