"Eight hundred," says the auctioneer. "900 ... 1,000 ... 1,100 ..." Sold. For 1,200 Libyan dinars -- the equivalent of $800.
Not a used car, a piece of land, or an item of furniture. Not "merchandise" at all, but two human beings. One
of the unidentified men being sold in the grainy cell phone video
obtained by CNN is Nigerian. He appears to be in his twenties and is
wearing a pale shirt and sweatpants.
He has been offered up for
sale as one of a group of "big strong boys for farm work," according to
the auctioneer, who remains off camera. Only his hand -- resting
proprietorially on the man's shoulder -- is visible in the brief clip.
After seeing footage of this slave auction, CNN worked to verify its authenticity and traveled to Libya to investigate further. Carrying
concealed cameras into a property outside the capital of Tripoli last
month, we witness a dozen people go "under the hammer" in the space of
six or seven minutes.
"Does anybody need a digger? This is a
digger, a big strong man, he'll dig," the salesman, dressed in
camouflage gear, says. "What am I bid, what am I bid?"
Buyers
raise their hands as the price rises, "500, 550, 600, 650 ..." Within
minutes it is all over and the men, utterly resigned to their fate, are
being handed over to their new "masters."
After the auction, we
met two of the men who had been sold. They were so traumatized by what
they'd been through that they could not speak, and so scared that they
were suspicious of everyone they met.
Deportation 'back to square one'
Anes
Alazabi is a supervisor at a detention center in Tripoli for migrants
that are due to be deported. He says he's heard "a lot of stories" about
the abuse carried out by smugglers.
"I'm suffering for them.
What I have seen here daily, believe me, it makes me feel pain for
them," he says. "Every day I can hear a new story from people. You have
to listen to all of them. It's their right to deliver their voices." One
of the detained migrants, a young man named Victory, says he was sold
at a slave auction. Tired of the rampant corruption in Nigeria's Edo
state, the 21-year-old fled home and spent a year and four months -- and
his life savings -- trying to reach Europe.
He made it as far as
Libya, where he says he and other would-be migrants were held in grim
living conditions, deprived of food, abused and mistreated by their
captors.
"If you look at most of the people here, if you check your bodies, you see the marks. They are beaten, mutilated." When
his funds ran out, Victory was sold as a day laborer by his smugglers,
who told him that the profit made from the transactions would serve to
reduce his debt. But after weeks of being forced to work, Victory was
told the money he'd been bought for wasn't enough. He was returned to
his smugglers, only to be re-sold several more times. The smugglers also demanded ransom payments from Victory's family before eventually releasing him.
"I
spent a million-plus [Nigerian naira, or $2,780]," he tells CNN from
the detention center, where he is waiting to be sent back to Nigeria.
"My mother even went to a couple villages, borrowing money from
different couriers to save my life."
As the route through north
Africa becomes increasingly fraught, many migrants have relinquished
their dreams of ever reaching European shores. This year, more than
8,800 individuals have opted to voluntarily return home on repatriation
flights organized by the IOM.
While many of his friends from Nigeria have made it to Europe, Victory is resigned to returning home empty-handed. "I could not make it, but I thank God for the life of those that make it," he says. "I'm not happy," he adds. "I go back and start back from square one. It's very painful. Very painful."
No comments
Post a Comment