₦airaland Forum

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-39567632

Africans trying to reach Europe are being sold by their captors in "slave markets" in Libya, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) says.

Victims told IOM that after being detained by people smugglers or militia groups, they were taken to town squares or car parks to be sold.
Migrants with skills like painting or tiling would fetch higher prices, the head of the IOM in Libya told the BBC.

Libya has been in chaos since the 2011 Nato-backed ousting of Muammar Gaddafi.

Hundreds of young sub-Saharan African men have been caught up in the so-called slave markets, according to the IOM report.


Migrants 'forced to starve'

A Senegalese migrant, who was not named to protect his identity, said that he had been sold at one such market in the southern Libyan city of Sabha, before being taken to a makeshift prison where more than 100 migrants were being held hostage.

He said that migrants held at the facility were told to call their families, who would be asked for money to pay for their release, and some were beaten while on the phone to allow relatives to hear them being tortured.

He described "dreadful" conditions where migrants were forced to survive on limited food supplies, with those unable to pay either killed or left to starve, the report adds.

Another witness, who was able to raise the funds needed for his release after nine months, was later taken to hospital with severe malnutrition, weighing just 5.5 stone (35 kg).

Women, too, were bought by private Libyan clients and brought to homes where they were forced to be sex slaves, the witness said.
The IOM's chief of mission for Libya, Othman Belbeisi, told the BBC that those sold into slavery found themselves priced according to their abilities.

"Apparently they don't have money and their families cannot pay the ransom, so they are being sold to get at least a minimum benefit from that," he said.

"The price is definitely different depending on your qualifications, for example if you can do painting or tiles or some specialised work then the price gets higher."

An IOM staff member in Niger said they confirmed the reports of auctions in Libya with several other migrants who had escaped.

"They all confirmed the risks of been sold as slaves in squares or garages in Sabha, either by their drivers or by locals who recruit the migrants for daily jobs in town, often in construction.

"Later, instead of paying them, [they] sell their victims to new buyers."

Some migrants, mainly Nigerians, Ghanaians and Gambians are forced to work "as guards in the ransom houses or in the 'market' itself", the IOM employee added.

The organisation has called the emergence of these markets "a disturbing new trend in the already dire situation for migrants in Libya".

In February, the UN children's agency Unicef released a report documenting - in sometimes horrific detail - stories of slavery, violence and sexual abuse experienced by large numbers of vulnerable children travelling from Libya to Italy.

The report, A Deadly Journey for Children, said that almost 26,000 children - most of them unaccompanied - crossed the Mediterranean in 2016, many of them suffering abuse at the hands of smugglers and traffickers.

Tens of thousands of migrants arrived in Italy last year by sea, crossing from North Africa. But before they reach the jumping-off point in Libya, many migrants will have undertaken a perilous journey of up to six days across the Sahara in extreme temperatures.

Mynd44, Lalasticlala

But na waa o.

If to say na whites dey organise these trades i for know what to say but black man selling another black man it's unspeakable.

We are really made of black.

Too bad

African leaders should be held responsible for the reason why Africans are traveling abroad for greener pastures at all cost

eh ehh Africans doing Africans

what you seek , you see

just for the search for a greener pasture. it's a pkty!

mrborntodoit:
African leaders should be held responsible

if e better for every man

United States really destroyed Libya , everyone knew ghadaffi was a dictator , but the country was far better than it is now , it was even very peaceful , and now they just scattered everything ..... USA are the real terrorists

just for the search for a greener pasture. it's a pity!

Shame on all African leaders!

Holy Lord...... Why not stay in ur country and endure

Holy Lord...... Why not stay in ur country and endure the hardship than being a slave in another country.

Africans which way...West African Leaders are just too heartless

no be dia fault. after all this nigeria na still financial slavery.

Na by force to enter Europe ni

...

Ok

Is this a rebirth of the trans-Sahara slave trade or what? These Arabs and their disdain for black Africans.

You talk like U.S.A just went there and outsted gadaffi. He was a dictator killing his own people and the people rose up against him demanding he stepped down.

prettytasha:
United States really destroyed Libya , everyone knew ghadaffi was a dictator , bit the country was far better than it was , it was even very peaceful , and now they just scattered everything ..... USA are the real terrorists

stay in ur country u no gree, well you can go & die as the arab man slave

Amberon:
You talk like U.S.A just went there and outsted gadaffi. He was a dictator killing his own people and the people rose up against him demanding he stepped down.

He was outsted because he refused to be a puppet of the United States and West. Are the governments in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia any better ?
Ghadaffi's Libya used to be one of the best countries in Mother Africa. What we have now is a failed Libya.

Thanks to Obama and Hilary.