African Migrants Being Sold As Slaves At Auction For $200 In Libyan Slave Market

Slavery is again “mainstream” and African migrants are sold and auctioned in Libya. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) says, "Africans trying to reach Europe are being sold by their captors in 'slave markets' in Libya."

Last week, CNN published a report detailing the slave trade occurring in present-day Libya. One of the unidentified men being sold in the grainy cell phone video obtained by CNN is Nigerian. After seeing footage of this slave auction, CNN worked to verify its authenticity.

CNN's Alex Platt and Raja Razek traveled with Elbagir to Libya in October after obtaining footage of a migrant auction. At a property outside the capital of Tripoli, CNN witnessed a dozen men being sold like commodities, some auctioned off for as little as $400. CNN collected evidence and handed it to the Libyan authorities.

Tens of thousands of migrants, many of them from West Africa but also Bangladesh, Somalia, Sudan and Eritrea, are being held in camps and warehouses on the Libyan coast, hoping to reach Europe.

Migrants with skills like painting or tiling would fetch higher prices, the head of the IOM in Libya told the BBC. In an interview with Al Jazeera, Leonard Doyle of the International Organization of Migration confirmed:

“As shocking as it seems, it’s indeed true. The reason [the slave trade] can happen is because there is really no rule of law across much of Libya.”

Hundreds of young sub-Saharan African men have been caught up in the so-called slave markets, according to the IOM report.

Libyan authorities have launched a formal investigation into slave auctions in the country following the exclusive CNN report.

"A high-level committee has been convened encompassing representatives from all the security apparatus to oversee this investigation," Anes Alazabi, an official with the internationally recognized government of Libya's Anti-Illegal Immigration Agency, told CNN.

"Priorities of the investigation are not only to convict those responsible for these inhumane acts, but also to identify the location of those who have been sold in order to bring them to safety and return them to their countries of origin."

In an earlier statement, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, human rights commissioner of the United Nations said:

“We cannot even guess the scale of the abuses inflicted on migrants in all these hidden places, untouched by the rule of law.

“The situation of migrants crossing Libya was appalling during Gaddafi’s era, but it has become diabolical since.”

Migrants who are rescued at sea and brought to Italy have told how they are beaten, tortured and in some cases raped by traffickers in Libya. It is estimated that 80 percent of Nigerian teenage girls and young women who make it to Italy are forced into the sex trade.

Watch the footage here: