The black market organs trade is on the upward trend in Saudi Arabia, with more than 400 nationals buying organs, mainly kidneys, for illegal transplantation in the last two years, a report said.

“A total of 220 Saudis bought organs for transplants from markets in Pakistan, China and Egypt in 2013 and 190 did the same in 2012 at their own personal expense,” Dr Faisal Shaheen, director of the Saudi Center for Organ Transplants, was quoted as saying in the Makkah Daily report.

About 40 per cent of the Saudis who had transplant operations had to seek further treatment for various side-effects, he added.

“This is how the doctors discovered that the citizens bought organs from the black market and illegally got them transplanted and later informed the center,” the report quoted Dr Shaheen.