A harrowing human-egg harvesting racket where around 100 women were kept as slaves has been unearthed in the former Soviet nation of Georgia. Operated by Chinese gangsters, the was exposed after three Thai women were freed from the 'egg mafia' by a Thailand-based NGO, according to a report in Bangkok Post.
Pavena Hongsakula, founder of the Pavena Foundation for Children and Women said she first learned about the racket from another woman victim that had been released and returned to Thailand after paying the gang about Rs 1.8 lakh.
As per the victim, other Thais were still trapped at the human egg farm as they could not pay for their freedom. Most of the women were lured in by a job offer on Facebook promising them a salary between Rs 10 lakh (11,500 euros) and Rs 15 lakh (17,000) euros if they worked as surrogates for Georgian couples who were unable to have children.
The organisation advertising the job took care of the passports and visas of the victims but once the women landed in the Eastern European country, they were quickly shepherded into four large properties with around a hundred other women. The victims soon realised that the job offer was a sham and that they had been dragged into something far more sinister.
During a press conference, one of the victims revealed that they were pumped up with hormones to stimulate their ovaries and were forced to have their eggs removed once a month.
"The women would be injected to get treatment, anesthetized and their eggs would be extracted with a machine. After we got this information and it was not the same as the advertisement, we got scared, we tried to contact people back home."
As per Ms Pavena, the collected eggs were believed to be sold and trafficked in other countries for use in in-vitro fertilisation (IVF).
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'The horrors'
Social media users reacting to the news demanded strict international regulations on the reproduction industry.
"Regulate this now! There should be a solid background check of where donor eggs come from," said one user while another added: "The dark and shady side of surrogacy. Truly heartbreaking what these women may have undergone."
A third commented: "So many of us grow up, and live, in complete ignorance of what others endure that we really can't comprehend the horrors that some people endure!"
Surapan Thaiprasert, commander of the Foreign Affairs Division of the Royal Thai Police, told Reuters that Thai authorities were further investigating the case.
