Migrants are auctioned for sale in Libya

CNN has reported an investigation into the slavery trade in Libya and the human suffering of migrants stranded on its shores after failing to cross into Europe.

The report relied on secret footage showing a market auctioning migrants to sell them for use as workers or farmers.

The video shows two people sold within a few minutes for a thousand and two hundred Libyan dinars, less than three hundred dollars, and this is taking place in a natural atmosphere as if the people of this region are accustomed to this terrible sight.

Tens of thousands of migrants cross the border every year from the sub-Saharan Africa to Libya, sailing on boats to the Italian coast, but the recent campaign by the Libyan Coast Guard in coordination with the European Union has blocked smugglers' operations.

While the number of boats has been reduced on average, the number of migrants has increased in the warehouses of smugglers, so that they begin to treat migrants as goods offered for buying and selling when the smugglers fail to profit from them as passengers on their “death boats.”

The investigation highlighted young Victor, a 21-year-old Nigerian. Victor said he escaped corruption in Nigeria, and his mother borrowed money so that he could travel to Europe to fulfill his dream.

But as the European Union fought against illegal immigration and returned migrants to Libya, Victor found himself stranded in a detention center amid bleak humanitarian conditions.

Most of the migrants in Libya are being subjected to human trafficking, he said. The fate of these immigrants remains unknown. Either the immigrant dies at sea or dies more than once on Libyan territory.

CNN said it had handed over the evidence it had to the Libyan authorities, who on their part promised to investigate the case.

source: Alarabiya