West African migrants, are being barbarically abused and then sold into the modern-day slave trade, for a measly $400 in Libya. Apparently, illegal slave trading has become so normalised in this community that criminals have started bargaining off fellow human beings in public spaces, and some survivors of this horrendous treatment have told a United Nations agency that they have been exposed to not only being treated as property, but also extortion and violence.
Recently images of vulnerable migrants tied up by the neck or hung upside down, waiting to be auctioned off by monstrous human traffickers, have swept the internet and several comments made by escaped West Africans survivors, have also surfaced. Several migrants have confirmed private prisons and slave market-like places, popping up all over Libya. One Senegalese migrant commented on his situation saying that after his “sale” and him working at a factory for a while, his buyers contacted family at home and demanded a ransom. The man also commented, saying that people whose family didn’t pay up in time, were simply and remorselessly slaughtered.
So, why is this happening, and why is it just being brought to the World’s attention now? Well, a few years ago Libya’s leader was overthrown and since then, the sparsely populated north African nation, has descended into a lawless chaos. The migrants have suffered the worst from this, because Libya is prominent and crucial exit point for African refugees, trying to cross the ocean to get to the safety of Europe.
The United Nations are trying their best retrieve and rescue enslaved prisoners, and the chief of mission at IOM Niger, has sincerely promised that his office will aim to rescue 1500 migrants in the first three months of the new year. British and American governments are yet to recognise and help, with this ongoing and brutal crisis.
