Migrants being sold as ‘slaves’ in Libya, IOM reports

Sub-Saharan Africans voluntarily emigrate to seek better life in Europe through whichever way they can find. The overwhelming majority risk the land route that takes them across the bone-dry Sahara Desert where many perish from heat exhaustion, thirst and hunger. Thousands still manage to make it into the Libyan territory and this is where their nightmare becomes real. From several disparate accounts, the sub-Saharan Black African migrants are usually rounded up and taken to large detention camps inside Libya. Three things happen from here. A few detainees manage to get out of detention and proceed to the Mediterranean coast where they board rickety vessels used by human traffickers to smuggle their clients across the treacherous sea to southern Europe. A good number simple give up the ghost due to the terrible conditions at the Libyan detention camps. The third group of sub-Saharan migrants are taken to auctions in Libya where they are sold as slaves if the bidding price is right. T