The 21st Century Slave Trade In Libya

The year is 2017 and the happenings around the world seems to be moving at a faster pace with humankind trying to catch up with what is going on around him/her. Today, you hear a suicide bombing in Iraq/Afghanistan/Somalia/Syria and tomorrow you hear of a terrorist attack in the USA, France or England with 100s of innocent lives lost through no fault of theirs. When such unfortunate events happen, the various social media platforms are flooded with updates about them and pictures are quickly released and shared on these platforms. Some people too, especially, Africans south of the Sahara are also trying everything possible to cross the Sahara Desert and further cross the Mediterranean Sea in their quest to get to Europe for greener pastures. Some of these migrants are fleeing from their war torn countries and they think they can only be safe once they make it to Europe.

But the journey through the Sahara Desert and across the Mediterranean Sea is fraught with death, robberies, rape and slavery. Many of the migrants have drowned in the Mediterranean Sea as their boats capsize as a result of overcrowding.  A lot of these migrants die from thirst and hunger on the Sahara Desert. Most of the women are also raped and killed by some of the middlemen and armed robbers. These migrants are made to part with huge sums of money by the middlemen. Failure to pay these amounts results in one being left to die in the desert or sold into slavery to wealthy landowners and businessmen who use them as slaves on their date palm plantations and also house helps. The month of November, 2017 saw the various social media platforms especially, Facebook being awash with the horrors of the selling of Black African migrants into slavery in Libya. These Africans are being sold for $400, $500 and $600 each.

These Africans are auctioned and sold as slaves in Libya. The UN, AU and ECOWAS are urgently called upon to act now and free these young Africans held in ‘Slave Markets’ in Libya. The slave auctioning of African migrants in Libya shows how humans are deprived of all dignity. We should renounce all forms of ideology and prejudice that reduce people to merchandise. God save Africa.