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Libya’s underreported slave markets are still active

Many sub-Saharan migrants transiting through Libya to gain access to their “European Eldorado” are being sold and auctioned at “slave markets” in Libya, reveals a video made public by the American channel CNN in 2017.

 

Libya’s underreported slave markets are still active

 

By Patryk Krych | The World Daily | JULY 20th 2020

 

It was only three years ago, back in 2017, when a video emerged of an open slave auction in Libya, where African slaves were being sold off for only $400. To this day, exploitation of migrants has hardly seen any change, and many people are still vulnerable in the country.

The words “Does anybody need a digger? This is a digger, a big strong man, he’ll dig,” were said on repeat by an auctioneer in the disturbing video, according to CNN, who had launched an investigation at the time that confirmed the horrors within the war-torn country. “What am I bid, what am I bid?”

 

 

CNN: Migrants being sold as slaves in Libya

 

Recently, in late June, 118 migrants had been rescued and taken on board the Ocean Viking ship in the Mediterranean. Many of these migrants had spoken to Agence France Presse (AFP) about their time and mistreatment in Libya, having experienced enslavement, torture, abuse and kidnapping throughout their time there. The majority of them were from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Eritrea. This served as a terrible truth that the slave trade issues in Libya, while having finally gotten some attention, are still far from resolved.

“For them [the Libyans] we are not human,” said Imran from Pakistan, one of a group who’d been rescued not far from the Italian island of Lampedusa, to the AFP. “All the Pakistanis here on the boat were captive during their passage in Libya.”

The outbreak of a disastrous civil war in the country, that has spurred dangerous conflict since 2014 and caused the deaths of thousands through both fighting and famine, is among the primary reasons for which slavery has become such common practice in Libya. Plans were reached back in 2017 for the evacuation of migrants from Libyan detention camps, where many of the vulnerable people were subject to being targets of the Middle Eastern slave trade.

The detention centres in Libya were said to have hit a severely overrun state of dehumanisation, with massive reports of robbery, rape, and murder among the trapped migrants. “It’s a total extortion machine, fuelled by the absolute rush of migrants through Libya thinking they can get out of poverty, following a dream that doesn’t exist,” said Lenard Doyle, Director of Media and Communications for the IOM in Geneva. He spoke gravely about the perils, particularly along migrant routes in Northern Africa. “There they become commodities to be bought, sold and discarded when they have no more value.”

According to the United Nations’ International Labour Organization (ILO), the amount of people captured and forced into a life of slavery in the modern day is three times as much as were captured and sold during the infamous transatlantic slave trade that spanned over 350 years. “Modern slavery is far and away more profitable now than at any point in human history,” said an economist at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, Siddharth Kara.

It is estimated that there are a total number of 40 million people bound in slavery today. However, there is little reported about the ongoing issue, particularly In Libya, in comparison to the news coverage around the country’s devastating internal conflict. The issue is not solely bound to the Middle East however, as it is further estimated that 136,000 people are forced into living as slaves in Britain alone, according to the 2018 Global Slavery Index.

Slavery takes many forms, from forced marriage, to forced, unpaid labour. For many women, it takes the form of prostitution. It is oftentimes placed under the illusion of the past, but it happens now more than ever, and requires immediate attention if it is to be better resolved.

 

By Patryk Krych | © The World Daily 2020

 

 

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AfricaNorth AfricaLibyaHuman Rights