The economic crisis caused by Myanmar's civil war is a humanitarian catastrophe, fuelling hunger, desperation - and the sale of human organs.
Since the 2021 military coup, the Burmese economy and currency have collapsed. The Myanmar kyat has become nearly worthless. Before the coup, the official exchange rate was 1,333 kyat to the USD; it now stands at 2,020. However, on the black market, dollars are going for about 7,000 kyat. The country's GDP has shrunk to roughly 88 percent of its 2019 size and is projected to grow by only 1 percent this year.
Inflation has surged to 20 percent in 2024, with food prices tripling as government price controls worsen already severe food shortages. Essential goods are scarce due to a 20 percent drop in imports. Exacerbating the shortages are disruptions in distribution, as internal shipping faces difficulties and the labour market has been impacted by military conscription and ongoing conflict. Electricity shortages have curtailed manufacturing, leading to widespread job losses and a decline in real incomes. As a result, 32 percent of the population now lives in poverty and over 18 million people require humanitarian aid. Exports have fallen by 13 percent and foreign investment, which was around $2 billion in 2020, dropped to just $154 million in the first four months of this year.
In addition to these grim economic indicators, unemployment has skyrocketed, with millions losing their jobs, deepening widespread poverty. Economic despair, the ongoing war, and the government's forced military conscription have triggered a significant brain drain, as large numbers of young people flee the country. An estimated 2.7 million people are internally displaced, while another 2 to 3 million are believed to have fled Myanmar altogether. Drug production and human trafficking have surged.
But the most horrifying outcome of the economic collapse is the dramatic rise in human organ sales.
Desperation in Myanmar has reached a point where some are selling their organs through social media apps. Burmese-language Facebook groups have been set up specifically for organ sales to connect sellers, buyers, and agents. Sellers receive as little as US$2,500 for a kidney, while a kidney transplant costs around $12,280 at a hospital in Myanmar. In neighbouring Thailand, the cost rises to about $60,000. This wide price disparity allows buyers to save money while agents, corrupt doctors, and middlemen profit significantly.
For the sellers, the lump sum provides temporary relief from daily financial struggles. But the money eventually runs out, leaving them with diminished health, reduced life expectancy, and the same poverty that drove them to sell their kidney in the first place. The organ trade thus reflects the brutal realities of Myanmar's economic collapse, exploiting the most vulnerable amid the country's severe humanitarian crisis.
Another option for Burmese looking to sell their organs is to work with agents who traffic them to India, where transplants can be done under the radar. In India, a transplant costs about $11,000, providing significant room for markups while still coming in well below the cost in Thailand. Despite organ sales being illegal in both Myanmar and India, one of India's largest private hospital groups was implicated in facilitating the sale of Burmese organs. These organs were sold to buyers as far away as the UK, where they fetched up to $44,000.
While organ donations between family members are permitted in India, agents often enlist notaries and lawyers to falsify documents, making it appear as though the donor and recipient are related. In some cases, fake wedding or family photos are fabricated to justify the relationship between the donor and buyer, further enabling this illegal trade.
Along with the poor selling their kidneys out of desperation, Myanmar's human trafficking victims have reported being forced to give up their organs. The Covid lockdowns inflicted severe economic hardship worldwide, especially in poorer countries like Myanmar, where extreme poverty and lack of opportunities have made vulnerable people easy targets for exploitation. Human trafficking, particularly for labour and sexual exploitation, has intensified in this environment. Additionally, there are alarming reports of people being forced into trafficking networks, where they are coerced into selling their organs.
In some cases, victims are forced to give up their organs as punishment for failing to meet quotas in online scam operations.
During the Covid lockdowns, much of the work on China's Belt and Road Initiative in Myanmar was halted. In this vacuum, particularly after the coup, so-called "scam centres" began to emerge in areas near the Chinese border. These compounds or criminal enclaves popped up in remote regions of Myanmar, engaging in all manner of illicit business, including gambling, prostitution, drug trafficking, money laundering, online gambling, and "pig butchering" scams that cheat foreign victims out of their money. These centres represent a convergence of Chinese transnational crime organizations, ethnic warlords in Myanmar, and corrupt Burmese military officials. Thousands of people were trafficked to these sites, lured by fake job offers. Desperate job seekers came not only from China, Thailand, Malaysia, and Vietnam, but also from as far away as India, Africa, and Europe.
Once trapped, victims are often forced into labour under brutal conditions. Those who fail to comply or generate sufficient revenue are threatened with violence, including organ harvesting. These illegal operations have thrived in the lawlessness that has gripped parts of Myanmar since the coup, exacerbating the country's already dire humanitarian crisis.
Until the war in Burma ends, the suffering will persist. People are losing their lives, homes, families, freedom, dignity, and even their organs. The country is under severe sanctions by the US and other nations, which have been designed to cripple the junta's finances and limit its ability to continue waging war. Unfortunately, some countries, particularly China, are willing to bypass these sanctions, providing the junta with weapons and financial support. As a result, despite the rebels' significant territorial gains, the war grinds on, and with it, human misery deepens.
The US and Western democracies need to adopt a more proactive approach. Imposing strict secondary sanctions on China would deter its continued support of the junta. Western powers should also seriously consider military intervention. Already, 5,300 people have been killed, more than 10 percent of the population is displaced and 30 percent are facing food insecurity. These numbers will only rise as the conflict drags on, worsening the already dire humanitarian crisis.