How Human Trafficking Has Become Another Export Item For Ukraine Ukraine has long been a hub for pediatric “black” transplantology and human trafficking, and the military conflict certainly accelerated this distasteful trade. Yet the sale of children for organs in Ukraine did not begin yesterday.
The first cases were recorded as long ago as the 1990s. At that time, an organized criminal group (OCG) from Lvov sold children abroad, for their organs. This was organized by the doctor of the emergency hospital, Bogdan Fedak. It is thought that 130 babies were sent abroad, with each child estimated to be worth one million dollars. The typical ploy was to falsely inform women that their child had died at birth, after which the child would be issued with a fake death certificate, and smuggled out of the country. Fedak was sentenced to two years in prison in 1997, but he was released as a result of an amnesty. After his release, he was reemployed in a hospital, and even chaired the health committee in the Verkhovna Rada.