Harrowing tales of West African migrants being sold in Libyan slave markets have become too common, with some survivors saying they are usually forced to work without pay and their captors regularly demand ransom from their families back home. The more IOM engages inside Libya, the more we learn that it is a vale of tears for all too many migrants,” IOM Head of Operation and Emergencies Mohammed Abdiker says. The survivor interviewed by IOM revealed that his captors asked for 300,000 West African francs then sold him on to other captors where the ransom doubled. He said that migrants who stayed in the detention camps for too long without their ransom being paid were taken away and killed. The organization now hopes to use personal stories and experiences of migrants who have managed to return home to inform West Africans of the horrors that migrants face on their dangerous journeys to Europe.

Source: The North Africa Journal April 11, 2017 15:00 UTC