{"id":92086,"date":"2017-05-15T12:00:47","date_gmt":"2017-05-15T11:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=92086"},"modified":"2017-05-09T19:46:00","modified_gmt":"2017-05-09T18:46:00","slug":"african-migrants-bought-and-sold-openly-in-slave-markets-in-libya","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2017\/05\/african-migrants-bought-and-sold-openly-in-slave-markets-in-libya\/","title":{"rendered":"African Migrants Bought and Sold Openly in \u2018Slave Markets\u2019 in Libya"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

A shot of the living conditions inside a detention centre in Libya.
Credit: UN Migration Agency (IOM)<\/p><\/div>\n

9 May 2017<\/em> – Hundreds of migrants along North African migration routes are being bought and sold openly in modern day \u2018slave markets\u2019 in Libya, survivors have told the United Nations migration agency, which warned that these reports \u201ccan be added to a long list of outrages\u201d in the country. The International Criminal Court is now considering investigating.<\/p>\n

The International Organization for Migration<\/a> (IOM<\/a>) had already sounded the alarm after its staff in Niger and Libya documented over the past weekend shocking testimonies of trafficking victims from several African nations, including Nigeria, Ghana and the Gambia. They described \u2018slave markets\u2019 tormenting hundreds of young African men bound for Libya.<\/p>\n

Operations Officers with IOM\u2019s office in Niger reported on the rescue of a Senegalese migrant who this week was returning to his home after being held captive for months, IOM had on April 11 reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

According to the young man\u2019s testimony, the UN agency added, while trying to travel north through the Sahara, he arrived in Agadez, Niger, where he was told he would have to pay about 320 dollars to continue North, towards Libya.<\/p>\n

A trafficker provided him with accommodation until the day of his departure, which was to be by pick-up truck, IOM said. But when his pick-up reached Sabha in south-western Libya, the driver insisted that he hadn\u2019t been paid by the trafficker, and that he was transporting the migrants to a parking area where the young man witnessed a slave market taking place.<\/p>\n

\u201cSub-Saharan migrants were being sold and bought by Libyans, with the support of Ghanaians and Nigerians who work for them,\u201d IOM Niger staff reported.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

A young South Sudanese refugee looks out of a truck before being transported to the Imvepi settlement at the Imvepi Reception Centre, Arua District, in northern Uganda.
Credit: UNHCR\/David Azia<\/p><\/div>\n

A \u2018Long List of Outrages\u2019 <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe latest reports of \u2018slave markets\u2019 for migrants can be added to a long list of outrages [in Libya],\u201d said Mohammed Abdiker, IOM\u2019s head of operation and emergencies. \u201cThe situation is dire. The more IOM engages inside Libya, the more we learn that it is a vale of tears for all too many migrants.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abdiker added that in recent months IOM staff in Libya had gained access to several detention centres, where they are trying to improve conditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we know is that migrants who fall into the hands of smugglers face systematic malnutrition, sexual abuse and even murder. Last year we learned 14 migrants died in a single month in one of those locations, just from disease and malnutrition. We are hearing about mass graves in the desert.\u201d<\/p>\n

So far this year, he said, the Libyan Coast Guard and others have found 171 bodies washed up on Mediterranean shores, from migrant voyages that foundered off shore. The Coast Guard has also rescued thousands more, he added.
\n
\nSold in Squares or Garages<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cMigrants who go to Libya while trying to get to Europe have no idea of the torture archipelago that awaits them just over the border,\u201d said Leonard Doyle, chief IOM spokesperson in Geneva. \u201cThere they become commodities to be bought, sold and discarded when they have no more value.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many describe being sold \u201cin squares or garages\u201d by locals in the South-Western Libyan town of Sabha, or by the drivers who trafficked them across the Sahara desert.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Risking their lives to reach Europe from North Africa, a boatload of people, some of them likely in need of international protection, are rescued in the Mediterranean Sea by the Italian Navy.
Credit: UNHCR\/A. D\u2019Amato<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cTo get the message out across Africa about the dangers, we are recording the testimonies of migrants who have suffered and are spreading them across social media and on local FM radio. Tragically, the most credible messengers are migrants returning home with IOM help. Too often they are broken, brutalised and have been abused, often sexually. Their voices carry more weight than anyone else\u2019s,\u201d added Doyle.<\/p>\n

So far, the number of Mediterranean migrant arrivals this year approaches 50,000, with 1,309 deaths, according to the UN migration agency.<\/p>\n

IOM rose from the ashes of World War Two 65 years ago. In the battle-scarred continent of Europe, no government alone could help survivors who wanted no more than an opportunity to resume their lives in freedom and with dignity. The first incarnation of IOM was created to resettle refugees during this post-war period.<\/p>\n

International Criminal Court May Investigate <\/strong><\/p>\n

In view of these reports, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court<\/a> (ICC<\/a>) on 8 May told the United Nations Security Council that her office is considering launching an investigation into alleged migrant-related crimes in Libya, including human trafficking.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy office continues to collect and analyse information relating to serious and widespread crimes allegedly committed against migrants attempting to transit through Libya,\u201d said Fatou Bensouda during a Security Council meeting on the North African country\u2019s situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m similarly dismayed by credible accounts that Libya has become a marketplace for the trafficking of human beings,\u201d she added, noting that her office \u201cis carefully examining the feasibility\u201d of opening an investigation into migrant-related crimes in Libya should the Court\u2019s jurisdictional requirements be met.
\n
\n\u2018Horrendous Abuses\u2019 at the Hands of Smugglers<\/strong><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, one person out of every 35 trying to cross the inland sea between northern Africa and Italy in 2017 has died out in the deep waters of the Mediterranean, the United Nations refugee agency on 8 May reported, calling for \u201ccredible alternatives to these dangerous crossings for people in need of international protection.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSaving lives must be the top priority for all and, in light of the recent increase in arrivals, I urge further efforts to rescue people along this dangerous route,\u201d said<\/a> the UN High Commissioner for Refugees<\/a> (UNHCR<\/a>), Filippo Grandi.<\/p>\n

The Central Mediterranean \u2013 with smugglers trafficking people from the shores of Libya to Italy \u2013 has proven to be particularly deadly. Out on the open sea, approximately 1,150 people have either disappeared or lost their lives in 2017.<\/p>\n

In response to the recent stories reported to UNHCR\u2019s teams by survivors, Grandi said that he is \u201cprofoundly shocked by the violence used by some smugglers.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the \u201cCentral Mediterranean route continues to be particularly dangerous this year, also for 2016 the UN recorded more deaths at sea<\/a> than ever before.<\/p>\n

The main causes of shipwrecks, according to UNHCR, are the increasing numbers of passengers on board vessels used by traffickers, the worsening quality of vessels and the increasing use of rubber boats instead of wooden ones.<\/p>\n

_________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Baher Kamal, Egyptian-born, Spanish national secular journalist. He is founder and publisher of\u00a0<\/em>Human Wrongs Watch<\/a>. Kamal is a pro-peace, non-violence, human rights, harmonious coexistence defender among human beings and with Nature, with more than 43 years of professional experience. With these issues in sight, he covered practically all professional posts, from correspondent to chief editor of dailies and international news agencies.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 ipsnews.net<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

9 May 2017 – Hundreds of migrants along North African migration routes are being bought and sold openly in modern day \u2018slave markets\u2019 in Libya, survivors have told the United Nations migration agency, which warned that these reports \u201ccan be added to a long list of outrages\u201d in the country. The International Criminal Court is now considering investigating.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[127],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-92086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92086\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}