Testimony from dozens of young men who have survived their ordeals presents a shocking and destructive picture of a slave trade operated by smugglers in Libya profiting from the misery of others. In other cases, the IOM says, young men are kidnapped en route to their destination, held for ransom and then auctioned off to the highest bidder in Libya. IOM Chief of Mission for Libya Othman Belbeisi says the migrants are treated as commodities to be bought and sold on the slave market. “If a migrant is being killed, sometimes it is considered normal and many of the migrants are buried without identification. The IOM says that migrants often are abused, tortured, and discarded when they have outlived their value.

Source: The North Africa Journal April 11, 2017 16:07 UTC