Auctions of human beings, eerily similar to when slaves were sold at auction, are taking place in Libya, according to an exclusive CNN report. that shows images of young migrants sold by human traffickers.
"800 dinars ... 900, 1,100 ... sold for 1,200 dinars ($876, 740 euros)" calls the auctioneer who puts a young man, presumed to be Nigerian, up for auction. The auctioneer described the man as a "big strong boy for farm work." After CNN received the initial video, reporters travelled to Libya to verify the story. They filmed a dozen people being auctioned off in a matter of minutes.
Human lives sold in just minutes
The CNN report said that the "sales" of migrants happen once or twice a month. The images, captured with a hidden video camera, show an auction in a house outside of Tripoli. The migrants, mostly from Niger, were referred to as "merchandise." One of the men who was up for sale was "a digger, a big strong man, he'll dig," according to the auctioneer. The spine-chilling transaction takes just a few minutes, and journalists who approached the two men who were "sold" said the men were "so traumatized by what they'd been through that they could not speak, and so scared that they were suspicious of everyone they met." CNN turned the videos over to Libyan authorities, who promised to investigate. First Lieutenant Naser Hazam of the government's Anti-Illegal Immigration Agency in Tripoli told CNN he had not witnessed a slave auction but said organized gangs are operating smuggling rings in the country. CNN was aware of nine locations around Libya where such auctions take place, but it is believed that there are many more.
Unending horrors in Libya
Mohammed Abdiker, emergency operations director at the International Organization for Migration (IOM), described the situation in Libya last April as "terrible ... the news of 'slave markets' is just one of many in a list of horrors". The CNN report continued in the Treeq Alsika Migrant Detention Center in Tripoli, where migrants are held while they await expulsion. Here, CNN reporters met 21-year-old Victory, who said he was sold at auction after he had spent all his money in an attempt to reach Europe. Victory told stories of torture and murders, while other migrants at the detention center showed their scars from beatings from those who bought them. Victory told CNN he was held hostage by traffickers and for his release he paid "a million-plus" in Nigerian naira ($2,780, 2,350 euros). "My mother even went to a couple villages, borrowing money from different couriers to save my life," said Victory.