Nigerians are among African migrants who are being sold at a network of Libyan “slave markets” for just a few hundred dollars, an investigation by media outlet CNN has uncovered.
A video by the network shows men brought before crowds, said to be situated in north and west of Libya and “auctioned off” for agriculture work.
The scenes are reminiscent of those in the darkest days of human history.
One man in the video says he has “big strong boys for farm work”, as a Nigerian migrant is led forward and sold for around $800.
CNN went to a town where one or two such auctions are said to take place each week, and with hidden cameras they explored a slave market.
Bidding begins for the sale of the human beings in a dimly lit square late at night. Twelve men are sold, referred to by the “auctioneers” in Arabic as “merchandise”.
It highlights the tragic end for many of these African migrants who have sold everything and crossed thousands of miles from their homes in Niger, Mali, Nigeria hoping for a better life in Europe.
When they reach Africa’s northern coast many it appears have been held captive by the people smugglers and sold as slaves in markets in Libya.
Freed African men told the journalist they too had been sold and forced to work as labourers with no payment and little food, while beatings were routine.
Many of them have been freed from people smugglers by Libyan authorities and will be returned to their home countries.
It comes after European authorities clamped down of cross-Mediterranean migration leaving people smugglers with hundreds of migrants in their hands.
With nowhere to go, they were held by their captors in warehouses with barely enough food and water to survive. Others have been sold off in auctions.
Libyan coastguards have been given support by European countries to helped stem the flow of migration from Africa to Europe leading to a sharp drop in refugees reaching safe shores.
Many of the migrants are being held in appalling detention centres by Libyan authorities until they are repatriated home.
They will undoubtedly risk their lives again to reach Europe regardless of the obstacles in their way.
Victory, 21, one of the migrants in the detention camps, who left his hometown in Edo State, Nigeria and spent more than N1 million and 16 months trying to reach Europe, said he was sold at a slave auction.
He could only get to Libya, he said, adding that him and other migrants were deprived of food, abused and mistreated by their captors.
“If you look at most of the people here, if you check your bodies, you see the marks. They are beaten, mutilated,” he said.
When his money rant out, his smugglers sold him as a day labourer, saying that the profit made from the transactions would serve to reduce his debt.
This didn’t happen, and after being forced to work for weeks, Victory was told the money he’d been bought for wasn’t enough. He was returned to his smugglers, who then sold him to more buyers.
The smugglers, he said, also demanded money from his family in Nigeria before they eventually released him. “My mother even went to a couple villages, borrowing money from different couriers to save my life,” Victory said.
“I could not make it (to Europe), but I thank God for the life of those that make it. I’m not happy. I go back and start back from square one. It’s very painful. Very painful,” Victory said.
__________
Follow us on Twitter at @thesignalng
Copyright 2017 SIGNAL. Permission to use portions of this article is granted provided appropriate credits are given to www.signalng.com and other relevant sources.