Rome - Hundreds of migrants along North African migration routes are being bought
and sold openly in modern day ‘slave markets’ in Libya, survivors have told the
United Nations migration agency, which warned that these reports “can be added
to a long list of outrages” in the country. The International Criminal Court is
now considering investigating.
The
International Organization for Migration (IOM) 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 ‘slave markets’ tormenting
hundreds of young African men bound for Libya.
Operations
Officers with IOM’s 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.
According
to the young man’s 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.
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’t 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.
“Sub-Saharan
migrants were being sold and bought by Libyans, with the support of Ghanaians
and Nigerians who work for them,” IOM Niger staff reported.
A
‘Long List of Outrages’
“The
latest reports of ‘slave markets’ for migrants can be added to a long list of
outrages [in Libya],” said Mohammed Abdiker, IOM’s head of operation and
emergencies. “The 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.”
Abdiker
added that in recent months IOM staff in Libya had gained access to several
detention centres, where they are trying to improve conditions.
“What
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.”
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.
Sold
in Squares or Garages
“Migrants
who go to Libya while trying to get to Europe have no idea of the torture
archipelago that awaits them just over the border,” said Leonard Doyle, chief
IOM spokesperson in Geneva. “There they become commodities to be bought, sold
and discarded when they have no more value.”
Many
describe being sold “in squares or garages” by locals in the South-Western
Libyan town of Sabha, or by the drivers who trafficked them across the Sahara
desert.
“To
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’s,” added Doyle.
So
far, the number of Mediterranean migrant arrivals this year approaches 50,000,
with 1,309 deaths, according to the UN migration agency.
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.
International
Criminal Court May Investigate
In
view of these reports, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC)
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.
“My
office continues to collect and analyse information relating to serious and
widespread crimes allegedly committed against migrants attempting to transit
through Libya,” said Fatou Bensouda during a Security Council meeting on the
North African country’s situation.
“I’m
similarly dismayed by credible accounts that Libya has become a marketplace for
the trafficking of human beings,” she added, noting that her office “is
carefully examining the feasibility” of opening an investigation into
migrant-related crimes in Libya should the Court’s jurisdictional requirements
be met.
‘Horrendous
Abuses’ at the Hands of Smugglers
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 “credible
alternatives to these dangerous crossings for people in need of international
protection.”
“Saving
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,”
said the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Filippo Grandi.
The
Central Mediterranean - with smugglers trafficking people from the shores of
Libya to Italy - has proven to be particularly deadly. Out on the open sea,
approximately 1,150 people have either disappeared or lost their lives in 2017.
In
response to the recent stories reported to UNHCR’s teams by survivors, Grandi
said that he is “profoundly shocked by the violence used by some smugglers.”
As
the “Central Mediterranean route continues to be particularly dangerous this
year, also for 2016 the UN recorded more deaths at sea than ever before.
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.
