Lack of post-operation medical care in their own countries also forces them to return. Take George Gobba, a Ugandan patient who underwent kidney transplant last year. Due to lack of proper care, his kidney failed and he is back in the hospital, but is yet to undergo surgery as he has run out of money. “The hospital authorities have allowed me to stay here and people are giving me money so I can survive,” he says.

Another unlikely problem is the agents who are fleecing these cash-strapped foreigners by ferrying them to the hospital. “We have also been asked by the police to provide them the details of Nigerian patients as drug peddlers are likely to sneak in masquerading as patients,” says Trivedi.

Despite the irritants, the flow of Africans hasn’t ebbed or will in the near future. Hope, after all, is infectious.