Crossing Libya: The human marketplace

The present report narrates the brutal reality of human trafficking framed in the complex tribal society of the post-Gaddafi Libya, laying bare an unfolding humanitarian crisis in which illegal migrants, refugees and asylum seekers are at the mercy of militias, private armed groups and trafficking networks who exploit them for financial gain.

Despite the instability and violence spread out across its territory, Libya is still an...
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Crossing Libya: The human marketplace

The present report narrates the brutal reality of human trafficking framed in the complex tribal society of the post-Gaddafi Libya, laying bare an unfolding humanitarian crisis in which illegal migrants, refugees and asylum seekers are at the mercy of militias, private armed groups and trafficking networks who exploit them for financial gain.

Despite the instability and violence spread out across its territory, Libya is still an important transit and destination country for hundreds of thousands of migrants who arrive looking for work or trying to reach Europe (accordingly with IOM). On the way, they are imprisoned in detention centres for illegal migrants, subjected to inhuman conditions including overcrowding, lack of sanitation and vicious beatings. Forced labor, harassment and exploitation make them vulnerable victims of a growing human market where they are bought and sold on a daily basis.

Both, the smuggling and trafficking businesses operate with total impunity in the country, promising an easy trip or forcing migrants to make it, they get trapped along the pipeline suffering constantly human rights abuses and facing even death. Although, its main operational ground is Libya, the trafficking network controls the 40 miles of the Libyan offshore sending thousands of migrants to a certain death if they are not rescued by aid groups.

The report documents the perilous journey of migrants crossing borders deep in the Sahara Desert along to the trafficking pipeline to the main rescue zone off the Libyan shore, at the international waters.

Framed by sectarian violence, corruption and bureaucracy this report circumnavigates the official channels and cultivates its own way contacting militiamen, smugglers, tribespeople and NGO’s carrying rescue operations in the Mediterranean Sea who enabled it to get a close view to the reality of the human trafficking, providing a glimpse of the complex and horrifying context anonymous migrants face.
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