A man identified as Li was recently kidnapped and used as a ‘blood slave’ for months by a criminal gang in Cambodia who lured him through an online job advertisement using a fake company.
While in their captivity, the 31-year-old Li, a Chinese had 800ml of blood drained from him every month.
His blood was suspected to have been sold online. This experience left his arms with bruises and wounds from needles. He lost so much blood that during his final drawing, the criminals took it from his head since his arms could not supply enough.
Guidelines for safe blood donations is that not more than 500ml be taken at a time.
It takes about 48 hours or more to replenish, especially for red blood cells, according to the report.
American Red Cross recommends that people should wait for about 56 days between blood donation sessions.
Additionally, if red blood cells are taken, donations should only take place about three times a year. However, it is unclear what kind of method the gang used to take blood from Li.
When Li finally arrived at a hospital on February 12, he was almost dead and multiple of his organs were on the verge of failing. He had managed to escape through the help of one of the gang members. Fortunately, Li is under proper medical care and his condition is now stabilized.
Li previously worked at a security guard before he went to the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region for a job as a nightclub bouncer last August. But he later learned the job advertisement was fake at that location.
Sensing that he had discovered their plot, he was kidnapped and forced to cross from China to Vietnam at gunpoint.
First, he was taken to Ho Chi Minh City then he was shipped to Sihanoukville, Cambodia. There he was sold to another gang who ran an online fraud company for $18,500. Li said the members of this company were all Chinese and they treated him and other victims coldly – regarding them as tools for making money.
Li stated that the gang had turned him into a blood slave after he refused to participate in their telemarketing fraud scheme after they learned that he was an orphan who would not fetch them ransom.
He said, one of the members threatened him, saying if they cannot take his blood, they will sell him to organ harvesters.
From then, he was for to be a blood slave. The gang used electric prods to tortue him and the other captives, who included seven other men. He revealed that his blood was taken the most as he is type O, a universal blood donor type – quite valuable, according to the gang.
Notably, kidnapping and blood slaves are not uncommon in Cambodia. Those who do not obey are beaten with electric prods.
The Chinese embassy in Cambodia released a statement calling upin Cambodian authorities to institute a high level investigation into the matter. A representative of the embassy also visited Li in the hospital.