Migrants and refugees are being sold as slaves by human traffickers in Libya for as little as a few hundred dollars, a shocking report has found.
Thousands of migrants still arrive in Libya, many from sub-Saharan Africa and Africa’s Horn in the hopes to cross the Mediterranean.
However, as Italy and the EU have been financing and training Libya’s coastguard to stem the flow of people crossing the Mediterranean, many see their journey to Europe end in Libya.
While some are sent to detention centers, many are simply left in the hands of the human traffickers whom they had either paid or owe substantial sums to.
Video obtained by CNN shows a slave auction in Libya where Nigerian men are being sold as “big strong boys for farm work.”
On the video, the auctioneer can be heard shouting prices, before one of the men is sold for 1,200 Libyan dinars – the equivalent of $800.
There have been several reports on torture and abuse in the many detention centers in Libya, many of whom are run by local militant groups due to the current power vacuum.
Last month, the president of Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) called for EU aid to stop, saying Libya’s detention of migrants “must be named for what it is: a thriving enterprise of kidnapping, torture, and extortion.”
Detainees told MSF how men are forced to run naked in the courtyard until they collapse from exhaustion, while women are raped and made to call family back home for money to free them.
