On Tuesday, November 14, CNN ran a story that documents the findings of its investigation into a slave trade that has taken shape primarily in Libya, where a six-year power vacuum left by NATO's 2011 operation to dismantle the Muammar Gaddafi regime has resulted in chaos and dysfunction. What the network discovered were open-air auctions being held to sell the labor of Sub-Saharan Africans.
Cameras followed Sudanese investigative reporter Nima Elbagir as she managed to gain access to an auction, where her recording picked up the juncture's facilitator throwing out prices for attendees to bid on. "800... 900 ... 1,000 ... 1,100 ..." he is heard hollering out at one point, before the worker standing beside him is claimed for the equivalent of $800 (1,200 Libyan dinars).
According to witnesses who Elbagir was reportedly able to speak with, the price for a worker can start as low as $400. The buyers are enticed by the auctioneer hyping up the sale with such remarks as, "big strong boys for farm work," and "Does anybody need a digger? This is a digger, a big strong man, he'll dig."
The pool of slaves are usually collected from towns on the coast of the Mediterranean, where Africans fleeing conflicts regularly migrate to in an effort to catch a boat to Europe. A Newsweek report cites refugees coming in from countries like Egypt, Sudan, and Niger to meet up with smugglers who have gotten so creative as to use Facebook to secretly advertise and set out plans to organize the trips for as much as $3,500 for two to be transported to the docks and then $1,500 for the overseas trip.
But because the Libyan coastguard has tightened up its borders and clamped down in an effort to secure the Mediterranean in recent years, many who've made the long journey wind up stranded in the country without money. They thus become exploited in the local slave trade.
Source: cnn.com
